Gallant Match Read Free

if possible, avoid a first marriage, much less a second.
    â€œThe effort must suffice,” she said now, “for I have no idea how else to discourage the man.” Leaving the mirror, she scooped up her shawl from the floor. “With any luck, he will be as moralizing and disapproving as the rest of his kind. Wish me bonne chance? ”
    Her aunt might scold but made little effort to actually curb her charge. “With all my heart,” she said, a worried look in her fine brown eyes, “though I still think you’re making a mistake.”
    â€œIf he won’t be put off by this display, then I shall have to arrange something else, yes?” Sonia’s smile was satirical as she looked back over her shoulder at her aunt. Drawing a deep, sustaining breath, she sailed out the door.

Two
    K err Wallace rose to his feet as a whirlwind of silk, lace and tantalizing perfume swept into the room. It was polite homage to a lady, his gesture, but also a move of purest alarm. This was surely not the daughter who required an escort to her wedding? Not this creature of fiery hair, flashing eyes and tender white breasts warmed to a pink satin sheen by candlelight?
    If so, he’d have his work cut out for him.
    Why in God’s name couldn’t she have been dowdy and meek, with a flat chest and a squint in one eye? He could have dealt with such a female.
    He should have known better. A man like Jean Pierre Rouillard would have nothing to do with a plain bride. He’d have the most beautiful, most refined to be found; his pride would demand it if not his conceit.
    Monsieur Bonneval, his host, was also on his feet, though a frown sat on his face like disapproval carved in marble. “Sonia, ma chère, you interrupt a matter of business. Leave us, if you please.”
    It was an order; Kerr recognized that easily enough. The lady seemed unimpressed. Coming forward, she held out her hand. “But we have a guest, Papa,” she said with only the briefest of glances over her shoulder. “He must be made welcome. Will you not present me?”
    â€œSonia!”
    She paled a little under the hectic color that flushed her cheeks, Kerr noticed. He was sorry to be the cause, saw no reason that it should continue. Besides, he rather resented the implication that he was not a person to be introduced to Bonneval’s daughter until well and truly hired for the post under discussion.
    â€œKerr Wallace, at your service, mademoiselle. ” He bowed over her hand, holding it with light and rather awkward pressure since hers was bare and he had left his own gloves with the butler who had admitted him.
    â€œEnchanted, Monsieur Wallace, and I am Sonia Blanche Amalie Bonneval. I believe you and my father, between you, are arranging my wedding voyage, yes?”
    â€œThat’s so.”
    Her fingers were cool and not quite steady in his, as if she held to composure by a thread. He kept his gaze impassive but couldn’t help wondering at the cause of it, yes, and at the strain between father and daughter as well. Not that it was any of his affair. He was here for one purpose only. The people involved mattered not at all. No, not even if the lady’s touch did send a numbing flash up his arm like a bolt of lightning.
    He would have released her but she would not allow it. She clung to his hand while searching his face withwide eyes fringed by lashes that glinted auburn near her eyelids but were oddly black at the tips. They were the blue-gray of a storm sky, he saw, veiled with an illusive tint of periwinkle like the mountain asters of autumn. And like a storm sky, they promised sore problems ahead.
    â€œI am afraid it may be a perilous passage with this terrible threat of war hanging over us,” she went on, her hand sliding deeper into his, her skin warming against his callused palm. “You do not shrink from it?”
    â€œNonsense,” Monsieur Bonneval said with the rasp of