The Reluctant Bride (Regency Undone) Read Free Page B

perfect choice in Sophia Challoner.  She was a beauty, there was no doubt about that, and even his mother had been delighted.  An only child with no male heirs in the family, it meant that on her parents’ demise Sophia would inherit the estate which bordered that of Avalon Hall - which would significantly add to their already considerable land.  As far as he was concerned, in light of her father’s straightened financial circumstances, Sophia should have been exceedingly grateful to him for his offer and everything should have settled down famously.  Yet now look where he was.  Too late he’d realised that soft and biddable were traits that definitely did not feature in Sophia’s character.  In fact, she had been nothing but trouble since the day he’d met her.
    He thought back to that first meeting.  It had been an unmitigated disaster; for far from leaping at his offer with the willingness he had been lead to believe she would by her father, she had heard him out, coolly thanked him for his kind offer and declined; explaining that her affections were engaged elsewhere.
    Her refusal had confounded him and he had awaited no further explanations before bowing stiffly and taking himself off.  He felt surprisingly put out.  His first impressions of Sophia, apart from her obvious disdain of him, had been pleasing.  She was both beautiful and elegant and he could imagine that as his wife she would be a great asset to him.  He wasn’t used to having his plans thwarted.
    Consequently when a missive subsequently arrived from her father later that day apologising for his daughter's behaviour and assuring Ralph that she had now had a chance to reconsider his proposal, Ralph was persuaded to give her a second chance.
    Lord Challoner had arrived at eleven o’clock the next morning with a very stormy-looking Sophia in tow and had wasted no time, after courtesies had been exchanged, in informing Ralph that Sophia had something she wished to say to him.
    ‘Sophia?’ he ordered sharply when she seemed disinclined to speak.
    Sophia glared at her father for a long rebellious moment before finally turning venomous eyes in Ralph’s direction.
    ‘I thank you for your kind offer for my hand in marriage,’ she said stiffly.  ‘I am given no choice but to accept.’
    Her father turned puce in the face and stepped forward as if to remonstrate with her, but Ralph had hastened to diffuse the situation.
    ‘I am very glad you have changed your mind Sophia,’ he said coolly. ‘I will do my best to be a good husband to you.’
    And had he not done his best, he thought now, staring at his wife’s rebellious profile as she stared doggedly out of the window?  Ye Gods, how many men in his position would have agreed not to consummate their marriage on their wedding night - agreed in fact to wait until she was ready before they did so?  Did she not realise how hard that was for a man?  And what incensed him more was that his original intention – so blithely suggested by his cousin Guy - of continuing to take his pleasures elsewhere down in London, had come to nought either.  For it seemed that now he had acquired a beautiful wife who was totally indifferent to him, it had piqued his interest – completely destroyed his desire for other women in fact.
    He had now been celibate for over three months - a situation that was enough to drive a monk to sin.  He had a beautiful, desirable wife and he was living in torture; watching her, wanting her, but unable to bridge the rift that seemed to be widening between them on a daily basis.  It was more than any man could endure.
    He should have been warned by that first meeting, he thought grimly.  Yet hardly was the thought out than it was dismissed.  Despite his desire for an easy life he found he was intrigued by his young wife; sensing an inner insecurity in her that went deeper than any emotions she displayed.  And for some unfathomable reason he could identify with that.
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