A Magnificent Match

A Magnificent Match Read Online Free PDF

Book: A Magnificent Match Read Online Free PDF
Author: Gayle Buck
Tags: Regency Romance
wearing something so akin to a bridal gown, miss.”
    Megan was startled. She whirled around to look again at her reflection. “Oh my word! All it requires is a lace veil and a bouquet. Gwyneth, I cannot possibly appear in this!”
    “Nonsense, my dear. You look perfectly lovely. It is quite suitable for a young lady just coming out. And I have just the thing for you to wear with it for this particular occasion,” said Mrs. Tyler. She unclasped the strand of pearls from around her own neck and held them out. “You will do me the honor of wearing them, Megan.”
    Megan felt tears come to her eyes. She accepted the pearls and allowed her maid to clasp them about her neck. “Oh, Gwyneth, I am beginning to feel like Cinderella about to go to the ball.”
    “A pity that there is not a Prince Charming waiting in the wings,” said Mrs. Tyler regretfully. “Certainly you will turn heads tonight, my dear.”
    Simpkins allowed herself a small smile and let herself out of the bedroom. The dresser’s formidable presence gone, the maid reasserted herself. “Now, miss, stand still so that I may fix your hair.”
    When Megan descended the stairs a quarter hour later, she felt herself to be almost floating. She knew that she had never appeared better. How odd that it should happen when she was wearing a discarded ballgown and a set of borrowed pearls.
    She met her brother-in-law, the Honorable Patrick Kennehessey, on the landing. He looked at her appreciatively and then bowed with a flourish. “Ah, a fine-looking lass you are, to be sure,” he said in a lilting brogue. He offered his arm. “Will you honor this poor soul with your company, Megan?”
    Megan looked at him wonderingly, even as she placed her fingers on his arm. “Come, Patrick, what is this blarney? I have never heard you utter such an extravagance in all my life.”
    Mr. Kennehessey smiled, his broad pleasant face creasing. “But then, why should you? We rarely have occasion for private speech. I must say that I have never seen you appear to such rare advantage, dear sister. Why, at this moment you almost rival my heart, Celeste, in beauty.”
    Megan began to realize just what it was about the short placid gentleman that had so charmed her sister. She had been in England visiting her maternal relations when the romance between Patrick Kennehessey and her sister had sprung up. By the time she had returned, they had already eloped and become pariahs in her father’s view. Concourse between the two households had been forbidden by Lord O’Connell for nearly two years, until he had relented upon discovering that his despised son-in-law could put him in the way of a valuable business connection. Megan had thus never had an opportunity to mingle with her brother-in-law except in such social situations as they were now preparing to attend and Mr. Kennehessey’s unprecedented compliment was astonishing. “Where is Celeste, by the by? She is not ill again, I hope?”
    A shadow crossed Mr. Kennehessey’s freckled face. He nodded. “Aye, and a pity it is. His lordship will not care for it, but I told Celeste that I’ll not be endangering any child of ours for the sake of any number of horses. I have told Celeste that she is to stay abed this evening. She fretted, of course. But I shall deal with Lord O’Connell myself.”
    “You are braver than I, Patrick,” said Megan quietly. “I was too cowardly to remain abovestairs, even though the circumstances of an hour past seemed to warrant it.”
    He glanced sideways at her from out of unexpectedly shrewd brown eyes. “Courage is an odd thing, Megan. It is particularly roused when one perceives a threat to those one loves best. You have not yet experienced that.”
    Megan looked at her brother-in-law for a long moment. “Patrick, you have not once mentioned your crops to me.”
    Her brother-in-law winked at her. “No, I am saving that delicious subject for the drawing room. You have no notion, lass, how easily one
Read Online Free Pdf

Similar Books

Community

Graham Masterton

The Fifth Victim

Beverly Barton

The Moon Is Down

John Steinbeck

The Fresco

Sheri S. Tepper

Kushiel's Avatar

Jacqueline Carey