I Thee Wed Read Free Page B

you Worthingtons. Even with your sister’s advantageous match, I do hope your family keeps the high jinks to a minimum from now on. Especially if you want the sort of future that association with Blayne House can give you.”
    Sir Geoffrey shot a significant glance toward his daughter. Orion turned his attention there as well.
    Sir Geoffrey had hinted that he might approve of a match between Orion and Judith, once Orion gained acceptance with the Royal Fraternity. Indeed, Miss Judith Blayne would certainly make the perfect wife for an up-and-coming young scientist. She had served as her father’s laboratory assistant, housekeeper, and hostess for several years. Although he felt in no particular hurry to wed, he felt no aversion to it, either. In this instance, it was a perfectly logical notion.
    With a wife like Judith, Orion could imagine himself living just this sort of peaceful, organized life. A fine home, run to exacting standards, leaving him free to involve himself solely in his work while his bride managed the boring day-to-day details.
    Blond, blue-eyed Judith was very pleasant to look upon as well, although not in a way that would at all disrupt Orion’s concentration—
    The woman behind Miss Judith Blayne stepped forward.
    Orion felt his considerable power of concentration snap to and aim itself at the female before him, quite without his intention. She stood out in that pale, elegant hall like a flame on ice. It was more than her vivid coloring, although her shining near-black curls and dark brown eyes, contrasting with honey-tinged skin and berry-bright lips, were rivetingenough. In addition, he could see that her figure was impressively curvaceous, even in the loosely fitted, dull brown gown she wore.
    However, further analysis, done with lightning speed, calculated as easily as an equation, informed him that mere buxom plentitude was not the factor at play.
    No, it was something more. It was the way she moved on the balls of her feet, nearly as if waltzing. It was the dance of her eyes and hands and the smile that hovered at the corners of her mouth, even as she began to speak.
    â€œMr. Worthington, it is a pleasure—”
    His head roared. Orion stopped listening. The ever-so-slightly Italian lilt in her rich, low voice struck him with a distressing amount of force.
    Without a sound or movement, Orion Worthington, stringent believer in only what he could see before him, began to fall.
    Vertigo. Spinning into infinity. Some axis that he’d never realized existed had suddenly shifted. Such an odd sensation. Almost as if one of his brothers had aimed a vigorous elbow into his stomach. Breathless. Heart-stopping.
    All in all, meeting Miss Francesca Penrose would linger for a long time in Orion Worthington’s memory as a moment of mingled exhilaration and, well, nausea.
    However, Orion abruptly became aware that the irregular thudding noise he heard was not his stuttering heart, but was instead coming from the trunk at his feet.
    To be more accurate, it was coming from something inside his trunk. Or someone.
    He gave a sudden awkward cough to cover the thud, aimed an answering kick to the thick oak side of the box that ought to have contained nothing but his clothing and a few precious specimens, and turned abruptly to his host. “I must put my possessions in my chamber at once.”
    Everyone in the hall gazed at him for a moment, obviouslytaken aback by his abruptness. Orion was entirely used to this reaction, so it disturbed him not at all. He had never been one to waste time or mental energy on empty pleasantry.
    It was Miss Judith Blayne who stepped forward to smooth the social strain. “Of course, Mr. Worthington. Even the shortest of journeys can be fatiguing.” She clapped her hands. Two hearty footmen appeared as if by magic. “Please take Mr. Worthington’s baggage to the blue room,” she ordered them serenely.
    Sir Geoffrey recovered next.