A Wedding By Dawn. Alison DeLaine
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу A Wedding By Dawn - Alison DeLaine страница 3
Название: A Wedding By Dawn
Автор: Alison DeLaine
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Серия: Mills & Boon M&B
isbn: 9781472094940
isbn:
If her father’s men succeeded, she could well find herself with Millie’s three P’s in spades regardless.
“If you catch his eye dressed like this,” Millie warned, “it won’t be deflowering that’s on his mind—at least, not the kind you’re thinking of.”
“I have a plan.” Pardon me, sir, she would say, there’s a gentleman outside asking to see you. Once outside, she would whisk off her hat, let her blond hair tumble free and tell him what she wanted.
On hearing this, Millie grabbed her arm. “We’re leaving. I absolutely will not allow you to commit such a folly. An utter stranger, who could have any manner of disgusting ideas—”
“Don’t be such a pill.” India wrenched her arm free. “Auntie Phil beds whomever she pleases. It can’t be so terrible and disgusting.” It probably could, but she’d already told herself to stop remembering the more shocking details Frannie had described.
“Your aunt’s deflowering took place in a marriage bed,” Millie hissed.
“Which can hardly happen to me as I have no intention of marrying.”
“I’ll never know how you’ve survived being such a dullard.”
The accusation stung more than Millie had intended. “Perhaps I shall marry the Egyptian.” India laughed. She might be a dullard, but she would soon be a dullard whom her father could marry off to absolutely nobody.
An especially rowdy bunch at a table in the far corner exploded in guffaws. The dark sailor punctuated his conversation with the kind of dramatic gestures that always accompanied an exotic tongue.
India reached for her tankard to take one last swig and hoped a deflowering didn’t take much time.
Millie grabbed her arm. “I’m serious, India. Ruining yourself won’t solve anything.”
“But it will most certainly solve one thing.” She set the tankard on the table and fixed her gaze on the sailor. “I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.” Every nerve came alive in an alarming swarm of anticipation.
“Nothing to lose! You’ll throw yourself away—”
“Oh, fie.” Virginity was the last virtue she had left to throw away. Everything else—her friends, her reputation, her popularity—was already gone. “I’m a woman of the high seas now, Millie. What does it matter if I give my virtue to a handsome sailor?”
But suddenly Millie wasn’t looking at her anymore. She was looking past India’s shoulder, and her eyes had grown as big as silver crowns.
“It matters, Lady India,” came a cold voice from behind her, “because you are betrothed to me.”
BETROTHED.
India whipped around and looked up into heartless green eyes set like flints above an arrogant nose and grim mouth. They were eyes so cold they could have belonged to an executioner, in the kind of face that could command the attention of an entire ballroom.
And he wasn’t alone. Next to him stood—
“William!” Freedom collapsed like a sail in a dead breeze.
William grinned and crossed his arms. “Such a disappointing welcome, Indy. Not happy to see us?” India thought she might end up vomiting with her virtue still intact. William shifted his laughing blue eyes to Millie. “Why, Millicent, you’ve gone pale. At least, I think you have. Difficult to tell beneath all that—what is that on your face?” He reached a finger toward her cheek, but Millie swatted it away.
India glanced away from them at the Egyptian sailor. At Millie, whose eyes had grown sharp with alarm—and that bloody pessimism that was the bane of India’s existence. There was no question what Millie was thinking: They would never escape William, the man who had taught their own mentor to survive on the high seas.
But India wasn’t above trying. “We’re overjoyed to see you, aren’t we, Millie?” she said brightly. “We absolutely are. What a stroke of good fortune— Millie, was I not just saying how much I wished we had friends in town? And now here you are. Join us, and let’s toast your return to the Mediterranean.” It took all her willpower not to look at William’s companion.
William laughed. “Very well. We’ll play that game if you wish.”
Game? Millie and India had sailed with William on the Possession. He knew how important their freedom was to them. Yet he thought this was a game?
“For God’s sake, Jaxbury,” the betrothal-announcer muttered irritably.
From the corner of her eye she could see he was dressed impeccably, conservatively, as though he’d just emerged from Westminster. Except no respectable man would be desperate enough to enter into an agreement to marry her, which meant he was what—a slave to the gaming tables? The holder of an empty title? A merchant with a mountain of debt?
Even now she could hear her father’s voice. You will choose one of these men, India, or I will choose for you.
The tavern seemed to close in on her. It would take seconds to dart across the room to the Egyptian, seconds more to reveal that she was a woman, a moment or two to convey what she needed. They would need to leave the tavern and go—where? Where would they go?
“Forgive me.” William laughed. His gold earrings glittered terrifyingly in the light from candles sputtering in an iron chandelier. “I see my new shipmate is growing impatient. Introductions and all that—terrible manners on my part. Lady India, may I present Nicholas Warre, Lord Taggart.”
Millie’s eyes snapped up from the table.
Nicholas Warre! In an instant India surveyed everything from the top of his greedy head to the toes of his debtor’s shoes. Father had betrothed her to a man so desperate to save his own estate he’d tried to steal someone else’s?
“Pillock!” she spat.
That grim mouth did not so much as twitch. “Be that as it may, Lady India—” he calmly reached inside his waistcoat, let her catch a glimpse of a small sheaf of papers and tucked them safely away “—it is incumbent upon me to inform you that we are contracted to wed, pursuant to an agreement I’ve made with your father.” Now the corner of that mouth curved slightly, and those heartless green eyes wandered briefly over the front of her coat. “Which means the only recipient of your virtue will be me.”
India looked him straight in the eye. “Dead men take no one’s virtue, Mister Warre.” He did not deserve the respect of his title. All her senses homed in on the Egyptian, but she didn’t dare glance his way. Didn’t dare look at Millie, who would surely be able to escape amid the commotion India was about to cause.
Before anyone could stop her, she dashed away from the table, barreling blindly through the crowd toward СКАЧАТЬ