Lover Be Mine: A Legendary Lovers Novel Read Free Page A

forfeiting the race, I had no choice but to
     promise to investigate you.”
    A soft spurt of laughter escaped Miss Fortin. “Oh, no, you would not want to miss
     a race,” she murmured. “Not a premiere member of the Four-in-Hand Club who is infamous
     for his neck-or-nothing carriage races.”
    The chit was teasing him, if not outright laughing at him, he decided. She continued
     before he could respond in kind. “Lady Skye is known to be exceptionally persuasive,
     but you surprise me, Lord Jack, allowing your cousin and your sister to browbeat you.”
    “I was hardly browbeaten.”
    “No? You barged your way into a private ball uninvited and stalked me here to my aunt’s
     library because you wouldn’t stand up to them.”
    “You do have a point,” he said in a wry drawl. “It is distinctly lowering. No self-respecting
     chap allows his female relatives to orchestrate his amorous affairs.”
    Her musical laughter rippled again, a sound so infectious that Jack chuckled himself.
     “I admit, you are not what I expected, Miss Fortin.”
    “What did you expect?”
    “To be frank? A jellyfish with no spine.”
    “Why?”
    “Because
you
are letting yourself be browbeaten into an unwanted marriage to Dunmore.”
    “Simply because I choose to honor my parents’ wishes, you think I have no spine?”
    “You are set on marrying the duke, are you not? You are far too willing to do as your
     parents tell you.”
    She didn’t seem offended by his critique of her, however. Instead, she just smiled
     that serene, faintly enigmatic smile of hers. “How can you make such judgments when
     you know very little about me?”
    He couldn’t dispute her on that question. And strangely he didn’t want to. In truth,
     he wanted to know Sophie Fortin a great deal better.
    “Perhaps you aren’t such a milksop after all,” he conceded.
    Her eyes gleamed with humor. “I suppose I should thank you for the backhanded compliment.”
    Such intelligent eyes, such warmth in them
, Jack thought.
    “I confess,” she admitted, “you are not what I expected either. At least you make
     a habit of appearing in unexpected places.”
    “What places?”
    “Besides my aunt’s masquerade tonight? The Arundel Home for Unwed Mothers, for one.”
    It was his turn to be taken aback, although he kept his expression carefully neutral.
     “What makes you think I appeared there?”
    She hesitated. “Last winter, one of the maids in our employ fell in love with a scoundrel.
     When she became
enceinte
, my parents dismissed her from our household without a character reference. I gave
     Martha the funds to live at the Arundel Home until her baby was born. I was visiting
     her one day this past April when I saw you there, meeting with the board of administrators.
     Your presence was such a curious phenomenon, I made it my business to ask about you.
     To my vast surprise, I learned you were a trustee and that you have contributed large
     sums for the home’s operation.”
    “I think you must have been misinformed,” Jack replied, fighting the urge to shift
     uncomfortably in his seat.
    She searched his face. “I don’t believe so. But I never did discover how you came
     to be involved. What kind of rake supports a home for unwed mothers? Unless …”
    Suddenly breaking off, she colored in evident embarrassment.
    “Unless what?” he prodded, not unhappy to see her rendered speechless.
    “Unless you fathered a child on one of those poor women,” she finished candidly.
    “I did not father any of their children, I assure you. I am very careful in that regard.”
    His own mother had borne him out of wedlock, although she hailed from a much different
     class than the Arundel Home’s occupants. As a former bastard himself, Jack hadn’t
     wanted to sire any by-blows, so he took precautions in all his love affairs.
    “Then why would you become a trustee?” Miss Fortin asked.
    Because it was a personal mission for him, supporting unwed