One Night of Passion Read Free Page A

some equally grievous scandal.” He leaned across the table and shook a finger at her. “Listen very carefully to me, gel, and don’t even think of brooking another word on the matter. You’ll marry Harris and you’ll be well pleased in the bargain.” His finger went from waggling in warning to pointing at the door.
    For a moment, Georgie considered all the things she could say, all the arguments she could offer, but she knew they would be useless.
    There was only one thing left to do.
    Take matters into her own hands.
    As the door to the dining room slammed shut, Verena shook her head and let loose a long-suffering sigh of exasperation. “What a burden children are. Aren’t you glad we never had any?” She paused for a moment and took a recuperative sip of her wine, her gaze still resting on the spot where Georgiana had reduced their pleasant dinner to such a terrible scene.
    The girl was nothing but an uncontrollable hoyden—why, it was a miracle Phineas had found her a husband at all considering her ill manners and questionable breeding.
    Questionable breeding.
    That notion gave Verena a terrible start. What if the girl wasn’t a . . .
    “Have you considered, my dear,” she began, struggling to find the right words to broach such a delicate subject, “that your niece may not pass Lord Harris’s exacting standards?”
    Brockett nodded. “Of course. That Taft woman was a disreputable hag—albeit a cheaply had one. So I have no doubts that she let the chit run wild. Lord knows what trouble the gel found around the docks of Penzance. Why, that nosy vicar said she went down there daily to watch the ships come and go.”
    At this Verena’s eyes widened with horror.
    Young ladies near docks? Dear Lord, what kind of men had their Georgette been in contact with?
    Oh, they might as well start packing for the country now.
    For as Phineas had explained it, they were to receive Georgie’s dowry for allowing her the privilege of becoming Lady Harris. Lord Harris’s havey-cavey reputation amongst the ton, coupled with his history of losing wives under highly suspect conditions, was enough to make his attentions toward any marriageable miss unacceptable—earl or no. Even the well-to-do cits about town, who’d all but give up their fortunes to see one of their daughters become a countess, were unwilling to go that far to advance themselves socially.
    In truth, Lord Harris was beyond the pale.
    Yet for the Brocketts he appeared like a saving angel. With their bills and accounts having gone unpaid for several years now, and threats of foreclosure surrounding them, they needed Georgie’s dowry badly.
    Money that should have been theirs to begin with, or so Phineas had claimed. Money from Phineas’s mother’s dower holdings that had been willed to his younger brother, Franklin, and then to Georgiana and Kathleen, passing over Phineas and Verena completely.
    Oh, life was so unfair at times, Verena thought. That two such awful girls should be so rich, when their relations had pockets to let.
    Luckily for them, Lord Harris hadn’t been concerned at all about Georgie’s fortune—all he had wanted was another bride to hopefully get with child.
    And a virgin one at that.
    That point troubled Verena more than she cared to admit. For if Georgie wasn’t as innocent as they had promised Lord Harris, then the money would not be forthcoming.
    And where would that leave them? Run out of the city? Forced into disgrace?
    The very thought left Verena feeling ill. She reached once again for her ever-present bottle of vinaigrette.
    “What if she doesn’t pass? What will you do?” she asked Phineas, tears threatening to spill down her cheeks.
    Her husband leaned back in his chair and wiped at his greasy chin. “Then I will give the old goat the younger one for a wife. She’s a frightful piece of baggage, but far too young to have gotten herself into that kind of trouble.” He smiled at his wife, and reached over to pat her