Tender Torment Read Free

for the tea tray later.” She studied him closely before adding, “Although you might want
     something stronger.”
    “Perhaps, but it is much too early.”
    “Never acquired the vice, eh?”
    “Not that one, at any rate.”
    “Gammon! You don’t think I believe for a minute those scurrilous attacks in the papers.”
    “Past or present ones, ma’am?”
    “Both! And don’t try my patience with a lot of balderdash about your reputation. When that tiresome hearing is settled, we
     must think to your future.”
    “My future?” His eyebrows rose a fraction. “I thank you for your concern, but it is misplaced. I have always done very well
     for myself, and I shall continue to do so.”
    “So you’re telling me to mind my own business.”
    Her candor disarmed him momentarily, and he found himself able to respond to her directness with a short laugh “Again I bow
     to vour perception.”
    “But I won’t be hushed that easily. Justin,” she said in that confident manner which irked him. “It’s time someone took you
     in hand.”
    The earl’s annoyance surfaced and his politeness quickly vanished. “I warn you, Madam!” he said in rising tones, and punctuated
     his words with a thrust of a pointed finger.
    “Don’t threaten me, young man!” Lady Maxwell stomped her cane on the floor. “It’s time some plain speaking was done! Your
     mother has been dead…”
    “Madam!” He came to his feet, but Lady Maxwell ignored him.
    “If you had remained to defend yourself against your mother’s insinuations at the time…”
    “I would still be branded a scoundrel!” he said through clenched teeth. “Now have done with it!”
    “I don’t wish to cause you pain, my boy.”
    “Pain!” he laughed harshly. “Don’t you know I have no such human feelings? Try my patience no further, Grandmother, I desire
     nothing more than to be left alone.”
    “That’s just my point! You can no longer be left alone. Your obligation as the Earl of Straeford supersedes all else.”
    He turned his back on her and walked toward the window without replying, but Lady Maxwell was not deterred. She plunged on.
     “You must marry!”
    “Marry!” he said with deep sarcasm.
    “The line must be secured and the Park saved!”
    “I shall save Straeford in my own way.”
    “I already have the solution.” Lady Maxwell rose and walked slowly toward the tall slender chair behind which he had positioned
     himself.
    He eyed her suspiciously under half-closed lids. “Very well, Grandmother, I see I shall have no rest until you have your say.
     So tell me your scheme.”
    A triumphant sparkle lit her eyes and lips. “There is a wealthy merchant who is mad for the
ton.
He has two daughters…”
    “My God!” He threw up his hands. “Not only do you condemn me to matrimony but to a climbing heiress!”
    “If my calculations are correct, you will be thirty-five come August. Do you intend the line to end with you?”
    “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.” Turning, he pulled the bell cord hoping to close the discussion.
    “Are you afraid of women?”
    Straeford whirled to face her and hissed, “This is beyond endurance, Grandmother.”
    “For heaven’s sake, Justin, all women are not like your mother!”
    “Enough!” he roared, slamming his fist into the wall. She had pushed him too far! But with superhuman effort he dropped his
     arm. Then wheeling on his heel, he stalked out of the room as Manners entered with the tea tray. Lady Maxwell sighed heavily.
     She had been hard on him, but it had to be said. If only he would drop that protective armor he had built about himself and
     permit himself to feel again. The tragedies of the past had forced her grandson down a bitter, lonely path for too many years.
     And she was determined to change all that somehow!
    Since Justin left home at the age of seventeen, he had returned only twice. The first time was for his father’s funeral. There
     was no assuaging the grief