Bride Enchanted Read Free Page B

he said. “The truth is that I saw you, and you reminded me of someone I once knew.”
    â€œOh,” she said, growing quieter. “Someone you loved?”
    â€œI was too young for that kind of love but, yes, I suppose, that’s it too.”
    â€œOh,” she said again. “A relative of mine? I don’t look much like my mother, as I recall. Or my father, for that matter. Maybe one of my cousins? I have distant cousins everywhere.”
    â€œNot your mother, not a cousin. The lady I recall is long gone. But I can’t forget her. Do you mind?” he asked, watching her closely. “You looklike the woman I was looking for. It’s true that I don’t know who you are. But tell me: how is a man to get to know a woman in your world if he doesn’t keep company with her? If we talk too long at a party or any kind of social occasion, the gossips will have it that we’re involved anyway. I can’t dance more than two dances with you. The only way to get to know you is to become engaged to you.”
    She tilted her head to the side, again, considering this. She held up one finger. “But what if I didn’t suit you, and I turned out to not be the kind of female you wanted?”
    â€œDid you say yes to my offer?” he asked with amusement.
    â€œNo, I didn’t say anything. That’s why we’re driving out today, to talk and to meet each other. And as to that, I certainly don’t know if I will say yes,” she said, sitting up straighter.
    â€œAnd so I thought. And so where’s the harm?” he asked, picking up the reins again.
    â€œBut what if I were the kind of woman who held you to your offer?” she insisted.
    â€œI knew you weren’t,” he said.
    â€œHow?” she persisted.
    â€œI have excellent judgment,” he said, sounding a little bored.
    His sounding displeased grated on her ears,suddenly she wanted desperately to be in his good favor again. She mentally shook herself. It shouldn’t matter that the fellow had a magnificent profile, a magnetic personality, and a melodious voice. But it did.
    Still, who was he? What did he want? Should she believe his faradiddle about her resembling the woman he was seeking?
    â€œLet me tell you a little about myself,” he said.
    And he did, as they drove round the park in the dappled sunlight. He told her about his estate in the countryside and made it sound beautiful and magical. He told her about his travels and made her laugh and sigh. He told her so much she had trouble taking it all in, and soon just sat, wide-eyed, charmed by his storytelling skill, lulled by his voice, pleased at the attention he was paying her, and slowly, but surely, wanting to move closer to him. She watched his wonderful face and found herself wanting to feel his breath in her ear, and feel the beating of his heart next to hers.
    She knew what sexual attraction was, of course. She’d felt it for a stable boy when she was twelve, and a neighbor when she was thirteen, and Douglas McKenzie when she was sixteen. The stableboy had kissed her once, and that had been fine. Her neighbor had trapped her in the butler’s pantry one night when she’d been visiting, and pressedan openmouthed kiss on her. She’d kicked him and stalked away, and that was fine too, because he’d been married. And Douglas had kissed her several times, and then rode off to war, and had never come back. He hadn’t been killed, only married to a woman he’d met in Spain while recuperating from a war wound. It hadn’t broken her heart. She hadn’t been sure Douglas was good for much more than kissing. But she’d been very annoyed because he hadn’t come back to her.
    Eve had felt twinges of yearning since. But once she was of marriageable age, she’d controlled her desires. Now a stolen kiss could lead to marriage, and she wanted to be entirely sure of the man she finally wed. So