At Last Comes Love Read Free Page B

could not afford to wait for his grandfather's demise, which might be many years in the future. Besides, he could not under any circumstances wish for the old man's death. Far from it.

    He needed Woodbine now .

    He had a sudden image ofNorman as lord of the manor there—with Caroline as its lady. And their children roaring through the house and romping in the park instead of Toby. It was a painful image.
    Woodbine was his home .

    Marriage really was the only option open to him, then. But there was no time in which to choose a bride with any care to make sure he had picked someone who would not drive him to distraction within a fortnight—or, to be fair, someone he would not drive to distraction.

    There was only time to grab whomever he could find. If there was time even for that. He could hardly walk up to the first lady he saw at the first ball he attended and ask her to marry him. Could he? And even if he did, and if for some strangely peculiar reason she said yes, he would still have her family to persuade.

    It simply could not be done.

    Except that failure was not an option.

    She would have to be someone very young and biddable. Someone whose parents would be only too glad to bag a future marquess for their daughter, scandalous reputation be damned. Some cit's daughter, perhaps—no, she would not be acceptable to his grandfather. Some impoverished gentleman's daughter, then.
    Someone plain of face and figure.

    Duncanfelt himself break out in a cold sweat as he stepped out onto the square.

    Or someone…

    But of course, it was spring, was it not? The time of the Season inLondon ? The time of the great marriage mart, when ladies came to town with the express purpose of finding themselves a husband? And notoriety aside, he was the Earl of Sheringford, even if it was just a courtesy title and essentially meaningless in itself. He was also the heir to a marquess's very real title and properties and fortune—and the incumbent was eighty years old, or would be in sixteen days’
    time.

    His case was not hopeless at all. It was a little desperate, it was true—he had only fifteen days. But that ought to be sufficient time. It was getting close to the end of the Season. There must be a number of girls—and their parents—who were growing uneasy, even a little desperate, at the absence of a suitor.

    As he strode out of the square,Duncan found himself feeling grimly optimistic. He would hold his grandfather to his promise and getWoodbinePark back. He had to. He would somehow have to fit marriage in with his other plans.

    The thought brought out the cold sweat again.

    There must be entertainments galore to choose among. His mother would get him invitations to any he wished to attend— if he needed an invitation. As he remembered it, most ladies were only too eager to entice enough guests to their homes that they could boast the next day of having hosted a squeeze. They were not going to turn away a titled gentleman, even if he had run off with a married lady five years ago—on his wedding day to someone else.

    A ball would be his best choice. He would attend the very next one—this evening, if there happened to be one.

    He had fifteen days in which to meet, court, betroth himself to, and marry a lady of ton . It was certainly not impossible. It was an interesting challenge, in fact.

    He strode off in the direction ofCurzon Street . With any luck his mother would still be at home. She would know what entertainments there were to choose among during the next few days.

    2

    MARGARET Huxtable was thirty years old. It was not a comfortable age to be, especially since she was not married and never had been. She had been betrothed once upon a time—or, to be more accurate, she had had a secret understanding with a man who would have married her immediately, if she had not taken on the responsibility of holding together her family of two sisters and a brother after their father's death until they were all grown up