A Matter of Temptation Read Online Free PDF Page A

sounded so boring.
    She couldn’t deny that comfort existed in her relationship with the duke, but not an ounce of passion. No true excitement, no wonderment. She’d experienced more joy in selecting her gown than in accepting his proposal of marriage. The past few months had been a whirlwind of meetings with dressmakers and stationers and cooks and florists. She’d hardly had time to take a breath, much less to realize that the anticipation she felt as each decision was made wasn’t experienced when she thought of spending the remainder of her life with the duke. And what if it was a long life?
    “Do you love Papa?” she asked.
    “I’m quite fond of your father. He has treated me well all these years, and as I’ve stated, that’s the most any woman can hope for.”
    “It doesn’t seem enough. Now that I’m standing at the threshold of marriage, it quite simply doesn’t seem enough.”
    Until that moment, Torie hadn’t realized that fondness wasn’t love. But then what was love? An elusive feeling she had yet to experience. Oh, she loved her parents, loved her sister, but she couldn’t say that she’d ever loved a man to whom she didn’t share a familial bond. Didn’t love require time to develop, to come to fruition? Shouldn’t one wonder how one might survive if the object of her affection were no longer there?
    Her mother heaved a deep sigh as though she were lifting a trunk filled with nothing but troubles. “I daresay you’ve been reading too much Jane Austen of late. You’re confusing the romantic love found in her silly novels with the reality of love in a marriage. It would be best if young ladies were not allowed to read books that created an unrealistic view of courtship.”
    “I must say that I absolutely adore Mr. Darcy,” Diana said, pressing her fist to her heart, a dreamy look coming over her face. “Such a tormented soul.”
    “He was a man with too much pride,” her mother said. “Which was the whole point of the story.”
    “I disagree. The whole point was for Elizabeth to fall madly in love with him and for him to fall madly in love with her.”
    “Nonsense. A woman does not seek love. Sheseeks an advantageous marriage, which your sister has accomplished far beyond my expectations. I’d hoped for a viscount, and here your sister has snagged a duke. If you were wise, girl, you’d follow her example.”
    “I’m never getting married,” Diana announced with resolute certainty as she plopped into a chair.
    An expression of unbridled horror crossed her mother’s face. “Don’t speak such rubbish. Of course you’ll marry.”
    “No, I won’t. Why settle for one man? How can you ever be certain which one is the one man with whom you should spend the remainder of your life? Each man is so very different from the others. Today I might want a man who is filled with gaiety, and tomorrow I might be in the mood for one who is a bit more pensive.”
    “I think you should concern yourself with finding a man who is content with a woman who doesn’t know her own mind.”
    Torie bit back her laughter as Diana worked to lighten the somber mood that Torie had inflicted upon them. Her sister had such an uncanny gay outlook on life, and she so loved goading their mother, who was always so easily provoked.
    “Come now, Mama,” Diana said. “Having one man in your life is very much like having the same dish served at every meal. It becomes boring after a time, no matter that you began requesting it because it was your favorite. You grow weary of it.”
    “Good heavens! Whatever has gotten into you to speak of such ludicrous things?”
    “I just don’t know how a lady can determine today what she’ll be in the mood for tomorrow.”
    “You’re talking nonsense!”
    Torie, on the other hand, was beginning to fear that her sister had touched on the heart of the matter. She wanted something different from what she was being served, but the meal had already been prepared. She could