A Christmas Promise Read Online Free PDF

would be dead.
    The earl clamped his teeth together and turned sharply to the door until he realized that there was nowhere he could go to escape what he had just agreed to.
Damnation
, he thought.
Oh, damnation!
And he wished for one moment that his cousin, the former earl, were still alive so that he could have the pleasure of killing him.
    He thought of Dorothea Lovestone—the delicate and delectable Dorothea—with whom he had been in love for almost a year. She would be at the Prewetts’ that evening. And he would be there too—to inform her in the line of polite conversation that he was betrothed.
    Betrothed!
Good Lord
, he thought, glancing at the clock on the mantel, twenty-six hours before he had never even heard of Mr. Joseph Transome and his precious Ellie. Yesterday he had been merely miserable over his hopeless financial situation. Yesterday he had not known what misery was.
    Well, now he knew. And by God, Miss Eleanor Transome would know too before Christmas came and went. By God, she would. And yet, he thought, his hands opening and closing into fists at his sides, it was against himself his anger should be directed. He felt disgust and shame at what he was doing. He was marrying for money.
    S HE STOOD IN FRONT of the parlor window, her back to it. She felt cold, but she would not move closer to the fire. She wanted to be as far from the door as possible. She wanted to see him clearly when he came into the room. She did not want him upon her before she could even catch her breath.
    He had arrived already, she knew. She had heard the bustle in the hallway more than five minutes before. He would be sent to the parlor soon. There could not be much for Papa to say to him. All the business had been conducted that morning. He would be sent—Papa would not bring him. He had almost collapsed when he arrived home and was sitting now in a large chair in his study, moved in there several weeks before so that he could carry on with business almost as usual. He should be upstairs in bed, but she knew he would not go there until this day’s business was all over with.
    She would not sit. She did not want to be caught at a disadvantage when he came into the room. She stood motionless before the window. And then there was a tap on the door and it opened.
    He was a harsh and a proud man, she decided in an instant first impression. There was a set to his face and his jaw and a lift to his chin and a glint in his eye that all proclaimed he was less than pleased with the situation. He would have been far better pleased to take Papa’s money without being saddled with her into the bargain, she thought. And her own chin rose an inch.
    He was also a handsome man, his hair a dark brown and slightly over-long, his features regular, his eyes blue. He was not particularly tall, but he was muscular and slim all at the same time—and in all the right places. The sort of man who lived an idle life and spent that idleness in riding and boxing and otherwise exercising his body in useless ways. He was an earl, she reminded herself—one of the idle and haughty rich. Except that he was not rich. He was a spendthrift and probably a gamer. She held her shoulders back and looked him steadily in the eye.
    He was more handsome than Wilfred.
    “Miss Transome?” he said, and ice dripped from both words, or so she fancied.
    Who else could she be? She said nothing and deliberately did not sink into the curtsy that she knew the occasion called for.
    “Falloden, at your service, ma’am,” he said, making her an elegant bow. “Randolph Pierce.”
    Pierce. She would be Eleanor Pierce, she thought, testing the name curiously in her mind. His name was Randolph. Papa had mentioned only his title. As if there were no person behind it. But then perhaps there was not.
    She did not respond to his bow.
    He came a few steps closer across the room and she could estimate that the top of her head would reach his mouth if he stood right against her. The