A False Proposal Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Was that Hugh I saw talking to you?”
    “It was.” After flicking an apologetic glance at Cass, he bowed and headed off to the meeting with his brother, she presumed.
    “What happened?” Jack asked. “Hugh never comes to town.”
    “He said he was here to find a wife. It was an uncomfortable conversation. Adam was straining to maintain civility.”
    “Hugh is like their father, who’s a loose fish if there ever was one. Use all caution around him.”
    Cass shrugged. “I don’t expect to be in his company, so you’ve nothing to worry about. How do you know so much about him?”
    “From Adam, of course. And one hears things.” Jack paused. “What did he want?”
    “He didn’t say. Adam seemed so rattled, I didn’t dare question him.”
    “I daresay that was the best course. He’s very touchy about his family, you know.” He paused briefly, as though to weigh his words. “His father and brother, I mean. Not his mother.”
    Cass nodded. She really would like that glass of lemonade, and sorely wished she could have drunk it with Adam. But she’d have to get it for herself. On the way to the refreshment table, she pondered Adam’s strange behavior with his brother, and continued to do so as she sipped her drink. She was unable to make sense of it. Afterward, she made her way to her cousin and the dowagers, chaperones, and wallflowers. Oddly enough, for the first time since her return to society, Cass didn’t feel as if she belonged to that group.
    …
    Whatever his despised brother wanted of him, the sooner Adam found out the better. Then he could dismiss the whole matter from his mind and get on with things. He hated deserting Cassie, but this couldn’t wait. The devil . He realized he was limping as though he had recently been injured. Why was it always worse when he was upset or angry about something?
    He found Hugh waiting near the column they’d designated as their meeting place, watching for him. “You’re lame,” he said. “From your war injury?”
    “Yes, of course,” Adam said gruffly. “What else?” He despised the word “lame,” and Hugh using it rankled him no end.
    Hugh took the hint and dropped the subject. “We need to find somewhere private to talk. Do you know the house?”
    “I do not. But there must be a room off this hallway that would serve.” Adam gestured toward the arched doorway leading to a corridor. He led the way toward a series of rooms, doors all closed. Which one to choose? He tapped lightly on the second door, pressed his ear against it to make sure he didn’t hear any scampering about, giggling, or any other sounds of an assignation in progress, and cautiously cracked it open.
    Windows at the far end of the room faced onto the back garden, which Adam could barely make out since there was no moonlight. He felt his way toward a table against one wall and fumbled for tinder and candles. Carrying a single lighted candle toward a small sitting area, he motioned his brother toward a chair and took the one opposite him. And waited.
    In the weak glow of the flame, Hugh looked older than his years. Deep grooves defined his cheeks, and at the ripe old age of thirty, his forehead was creased and lined. Adam feared it was due to a life of dissipation. Perhaps that, combined with work out of doors. Impatiently he said, “Well?”
    “My father wishes to see you at Longmere on a matter of some urgency.”
    Adam lifted a brow and waited for more information, but as it was not forthcoming, he finally spoke. “And what is this matter of such great urgency?”
    “You probably won’t believe me, but I was not privy to it. I think Father was afraid I would tell you, and for some reason he wants to do that himself.”
    “You must have some idea,” Adam said, rising to pace about the room. “Father has made no attempt to see me in years, and now summons me without even telling me why?”
    Adam paused mid-pace, long enough to see Hugh shrug. “Come, man, you know him