At Last Comes Love Read Free Page A

yet.”

    “Indeed?” There was a world of scorn in the one word. His grandfather raised his eyebrows and looked incredulous—as well he might. “And who is this lady, pray?”

    “She has sworn me to secrecy,”Duncan said, “until she is ready for the announcement to be made.”

    “Ha! Convenient indeed!” his grandfather exclaimed, his brows snapping together again. “It is a barefaced lie, Sheringford, just like everything else in your miserable life. There is no such person, no such betrothal, no such impending marriage. Take yourself out of my sight.”

    “But if there is ?”Duncan asked him, standing his ground though he had the feeling he might as well be standing on quicksand. “What if there is such a lady, sir, and she has agreed to marry me on the assumption that I have security to offer her, that we will live at Woodbine Park and finance our marriage and our family on its rents and income?”

    His grandfather glared at him with no diminution of either anger or scorn.

    “If there is such a lady,” he said, almost spitting out the words, “and if she is undisputedly an eligible bride for the Earl of Sheringford and future Marquess of Claverbrook, and if you present her to me here the day before the papers announce your betrothal, and if you marry her no later than one day before my birthday, then Woodbine Park will be yours again on that day. That is a formidable number of ifs , Sheringford. If you fail in any one of them, as I have no doubt you will, thenWoodbinePark will be your cousin's on my birthday.”

    Duncaninclined his head.

    “I believe,” his grandfather said, “Normanand his lady may safely continue packing up their belongings ready for the move.”

    Continue?Norman did know, then?

    “They would be well advised not to, sir,”Duncan said.

    “I will not invite you to stay for refreshments,” his grandfather said, his eyes raking over his grandson with contempt. “You are going to need every hour of the next fifteen days in which to find a bride—a respectable bride—and persuade her to marry you.”

    Duncanmade him another bow.

    “I shall explain the necessity for haste to my betrothed without further delay, then,” he said, and heard his grandfather snort one more time as he let himself out of the room and proceeded down the stairs to retrieve his hat and cane.

    This was one devil of a nasty coil.

    How the deuce was he to find a bride and marry her all within fifteen days? And a respectable lady of good ton to boot—his grandfather, he knew, would accept no less. No respectable lady would touch him with a twenty-foot oar—not once she knew his infamous story, anyway. And soon enough the fact that he was back would spread all overLondon —even if it had not already done so.

    Besides all of which, he had no wish whatsoever to marry. He had only recently been freed from a lengthy connection that he had found tiresome, to say the least—though poor Laura had not gone unmourned. He wanted to enjoy his newfound freedom alone, at least for a few years. Besides, and far more important, there was a purely practical reason why a wife would be a severe encumbrance.
    No respectable lady would tolerate the presence of an illegitimate child in her home—or even a strong attachment between her husband and his gardener's presumably legitimate grandson. And how would he ever be able to mask that attachment?

    It was unthinkable.

    Besides, Toby, however well he had been coached, would not remember all the time to call him sir or my lord instead of Papa .

    Damn it all!

    But marry he must. He needed Woodbine. He needed his home and his roots. It was true, of course, that eventually he would inherit all his grandfather's properties and vast fortune, including WoodbinePark
    , which was entailed and could not be given as an outright gift toNorman or anyone else. His grandfather could do nothing to prevent any of that happening beyond outliving him. But the trouble was,Duncan