Be My Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

sister, actually bribed the footman to put a snake in his bed.” She shuddered even now at the thought of waking to find oneself beside a slithering serpent. “But I think the worst thing we ever did was sneak into his room while he was sleeping, steal all his clothes, and hide them in the maze. He was the most pitiful sight, bumbling through the branches in his nightshirt.”
    “Why didn’t he have the servants go fetch them?” John asked with a frown.
    Cynthia cocked her head in wonder. “You know, I never considered that. We never had all that many servants here, but the Lewistons seemed to have dozens. He could have called upon any number of footmen or gardeners or stable hands. Odd that he chose to do it himself.” She remembered his comment that morning about doing anything to keep loneliness at bay and suddenly realized why he had never told his mother of their pranks. She didn’t have time to consider it further for John had obviously decided he had had enough of reminiscences.
    “I still don’t see,” he pouted, “why you cannot marry.”
    She was tired, but she had to try not to let him exasperate her. “John, this truly is none of your affair. If I remarry, I would like to decide on the husband, thank you very much.”
    “And how exactly do you plan to do that?” Jonathan asked from the doorway. Cynthia frowned at him, but if he noticed, he didn’t let it deter him.
    “This isn’t a proper conversation for children,” she replied with a sniff.
    He leaned against the door jam and crossed one slippered foot over the other. “I quite agree. If the infantry will please decamp?”
    Adam started to protest, but John hushed him, herding his brothers before him to the door. She would have sworn he winked at Jonathan in passing.
    “You don’t honestly think they’ll return to bed without help, do you?” she asked.
    “Most likely not, but you can check on them after you answer my question. I just caught the end of that conversation, but I take it you still have the same objections to Daniel Lewiston as a suitor as you did when you were a girl.”
    Remembering a similar conversation with her parents ten years ago, she blushed. “I was afraid Mother and Father would force me to marry him. I said awful things as I recall.”
    “You said he was fat and stupid and nothing would induce you to so much as dance with him, let alone marry him.”
    She thought of the kind man who had rekindled her sons’ joy in life and cringed. “That was badly done. He was patient when we were children, and he seems even kinder now. In truth, Jonathan, I think I’ve always admired him for that. But if I remarry I want more than kindness. I would want a good provider, someone who would take care of all of us.” She forced herself to put Nathan’s handsome face from her mind. “Someone who would stay around this time, who wouldn’t leave for adventure or fame. Someone who’d love us and want to be with us more than anything else. Someone who’d bring little presents . . .”
    “Like candy,” Jonathan put in.
    She had a sudden vision of an impossibly large box of candy and felt her blush deepening. “I warn you, Jonathan,” she told him sternly, “do not throw him at me again. I’m quite capable of choosing a second husband, if I decide to remarry.”
    Jonathan straightened to go. “Of course you are, my dear. But you’ll forgive me for believing that you couldn’t do better than Daniel Lewiston for a husband. I hope you’ll give it some thought.”
    Whether it was Jonathan’s suggestion or otherwise, she found herself thinking about the issue a great deal over the next couple of days. She saw Daniel Lewiston at church services in Wenwood, but he didn’t seem to pay her any particular notice. She decided that her fears over Daniel’s visit had been wrong. Daniel obviously just enjoyed watching her sons play, and he wanted to keep himself in her good graces, no more than that.
    She supposed it was logical.