Be My Bride Read Free

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     “Good afternoon, Mr. Lewiston,” she said with a smile, concerns fading. Surely Jonathan would know Daniel was playing with the boys. Daniel had obviously had a hand in helping her children recover their usual high spirits, although whether that was a blessing or a curse just now she wasn’t sure. “It’s good of you to take the blame for these antics, but I very much doubt you had to hold my sons’ feet to the fire to get them to agree to this game.”
    Daniel found it harder to smile back. Cynthia Kinsle had always been able to send a shiver up his spine. It wasn’t so much that she was beautiful, although that might have intimidated others. Her hair, soft and rich as the honey of its color, those thick-lashed eyes as dark as violets, and her slender figure would have made her the toast of the ton, if she had ever come out as expected. She’d certainly broken every heart in the neighborhood before eloping with a handsome naval officer of dubious family. His mother and hers had mourned, so sure were they that she and Daniel would make a match. He had never had such delusions. Cynthia was clever and spirited, and she delighted in making fun of a certain gangly youth. Just standing near her made him feel maladroit. They would never have suited.
     But there was something different about her now, standing there with the sunlight making her widow’s weeds look nearly purple. Perhaps it was the dark circles under her eyes or the way her long fingers plucked at the dress, a dress that reminded him of why he was playing with the boys in the first place. “You’d be surprised how much coaxing it took to get them to have a little fun,” he replied. Adam wiggled again, and he reached up and set the little fellow on his feet, with James beside him.
    “No,” she said quietly, “I would not be surprised in the slightest. Unfortunately, Mr. Lewiston, my sons do not have the luxury of having fun whenever it so pleases them. James, Adam, go find John and take yourselves upstairs to your room. I’ll join you shortly.”
    Daniel offered them a smile, but they hung their heads and shuffled upstairs. He supposed they were in for a scold, and he turned to Cynthia to explain again that any misconduct was entirely his own fault. The unshed tears in her violet eyes stopped him. 
    “Are you all right?” he felt compelled to ask.
    Cynthia refused to let him see her cry. She was tired from the journey and suddenly sick of being the one to stop the games and never the one to play them. Most likely he hadn’t meant to criticize how she was raising her sons, but the words stung just the same. Like it or not, they were no longer on their own. They would have to live according to Jonathan’s rules. “I assure you, Mr. Lewiston,” she managed, “I’m quite all right. Thank you for taking time to play with the boys. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
    “Of course,” he bowed her out, telling himself he ought to be relieved. But if anything, he was more troubled than he had been in days and he wasn’t surprised to find, as he turned to the terrace, that clouds had moved in to spoil his perfect summer day.
     

Chapter Two
     
    In the library doorway, Daniel’s butler cleared his throat with a phlegmmy rattle. “They’re here again, sir.”
    Daniel glanced up from his perusal of the plans for the new school he was building for the village. “’They,’ Evenson?”
    “The young Masters Jacobs, sir.” Daniel could see that his man was trying to keep the impassive demeanor his position required, but his graying hair looked wilder than usual and there seemed to be a tick working on his firm jaw. Nevertheless, the library seemed suddenly brighter. Daniel arose eagerly, shrugging into his old tweed coat. “Splendid. Where have you put them?”
    “I hesitated to put them in the withdrawing room without anyone there to watch them,” Evenson replied. “Especially after the incident with your great aunt’s vase.”
    Daniel