At Last Comes Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

You remained faithful to your promise to your father. You stayed with your sisters and Stephen until they grew up, and did a very good job of raising them all. But you never did marry, did you?”

    As if marriage were no longer possible for her.

    She did not answer him. She pretended to be distracted by the crowd.

    “I am glad you did not marry,” he said, lowering his voice. “Why would you not come toRundlePark when I joined my voice to Mama's to invite you there?”

    Ah. So he had known what Lady Dew had written to her. He had endorsed it. She thought the less of him—if there were less to think.

    “I had other commitments,” she said.

    “And they were too important,” he said, “to postpone in order to visit an old friend who longed to see you again? But no matter. I have come to town and have met you here instead. I expect to be here for a month or two. I will give you my company whenever I have the time while I am here, Meg. It will be a pleasure. You are still amazingly lovely.”

    Would it not be a pleasure if her looks had faded?

    I will give you my company whenever I have the time…

    What exactly did he mean by that? He was not asking for her company. He was not even offering her his. He was granting it to her as if it were some precious gift. As if she might be all alone and lonely without it. As if she were past the age when she might expect any but her family members or an old friend to take any notice of her. As if she ought to be grateful that he would find time for her in his busy life.

    … whenever I have the time.

    As if he were prepared to fit her in whenever he had nothing better to do.

    She was suddenly angry.

    She hated him with a passion.

    All the pent-up fury of years pulsed through her.

    You are still amazingly lovely.

    How … oh, how condescending !

    “That is remarkably kind of you, Crispin,” she said, trying to keep the edge out of her voice, “but it will be quite unnecessary.”

    “Oh, it will be no trouble,” he assured her. “I would never have it said that I would not show all the gallantry that is in my power to a lady who was once such a dear friend of mine. And still is, I hope.
    And always will be?”

    … a dear friend…

    He looked down at her, his eyebrows raised in inquiry.

    She was unaccustomed to feeling raw fury. She had no idea how to deal with it, how to remain prudent until she could bring it under control. So she spoke very unwisely.

    “You misunderstand, Crispin,” she said. “It is quite unnecessary to extend a hand of charity my way. My fiancé might not like it.”

    She heard the words come from her mouth as if someone else was speaking them. And suddenly she wished that someone else was .
    Whatever had she been goaded into saying so prematurely?

    “Your fiancé?” he asked her, all astonishment. “You are betrothed , Margaret?”

    “Yes,” she said with fierce satisfaction, “though no announcement has yet been made.”

    “But who is the fortunate gentleman?” he asked her. “Would he be someone I know?”

    “Almost certainly not,” she said, evading his first question.

    He had stopped walking. “When will I meet him?” he asked her.

    “I do not know,” she said.

    “At Lady Tindell's ball tonight?” he asked.

    “Perhaps,” she said, feeling horribly trapped.

    “I was not at all sure I would attend that particular ball,” he said.
    “But now nothing could stop me. I shall come and meet this gentleman, Margaret, and see if he is worthy of you. If he is not, I shall challenge him to pistols at dawn and then throw you across my saddle bow and ride off into the sunset with you—or perhaps into the darkness of midnight.”

    He grinned at her, and she was smitten by a sense of familiarity. It was the sort of thing he would have said to her when they were very young—and she would have responded in kind until they were both helpless with laughter.

    She bit her lip.

    If the Marquess of Allingham was at