Betrayed Read Online Free PDF

of herself and her devotion to a worthless, deceitful son.”
    The room grew warmer, and Michael intended to savor it. He’d been cold to his bones since the ship sailed into the Firth of Forth. India’s sunny clime wasa lifetime away. “I quite agree and couldn’t have said it better myself.”
    That put a kink in her plans. She leaned against the high back of a tooled leather chair. “You expect me to believe that you dislike your own brother?”
    Michael hadn’t seen Henry in so long, he wouldn’t know him from a well-groomed doorman at Trotter’s Club. “Not on our first meeting, of course.” He walked around the small sofa and sat down. “But given the chance . . .” He left the vagary to hang in the air while he removed a glove. Patting the place beside him, he finished with, “. . . unless I am convinced that you are a light-headed chit who has committed fraud against the Elliots. In that case, the countess of Glenforth would have just cause to sue for forfeiture of your dowry.”
    She looked beautifully baffled. “Dementia is an Elliot family trait.”
    As affable as a merchant on allowance day, Michael reached into his sporran and pulled out a pouch of his favorite treat. Extending it, he raised his brows. “Candy?”
    She didn’t move. Her expression said, “Get on with it.”
    After popping a small piece of sugared ginger into his mouth, he stretched out his legs. “If we are demented, then your Highland blood will surely serve us well.”
    â€œHow many times must I say it? I refuse to wed your brother.”
    â€œYou could do worse than Henry in a choice of husbands.”
    â€œI’m sure I could—in a Turkish debtor’s prison.”
    Michael almost choked on the candy. Beyond curiosity, he didn’t care why his brother couldn’t meet his financial obligations. He’d simply agreed to this meeting to placate his distraught mother. But he was growing intrigued with Sarah MacKenzie.
    â€œCome now,” he began expansively. “My brother withers for want of your affections. He loves you well.”
    â€œI do not care a tin farthing what your brother wants or whom he professes to love.”
    â€œBut you did at one time, else you would not have pledged to become his wife and bear his heirs. Given the smallest chance, he will rekindle your affections. Mother worries that you have simply fallen prey to missish behavior.”
    â€œLet me be sure I understand. Your mother, the countess, expresses true concern on my behalf?”
    Michael felt a prick of conscience. He did not envy this entertaining and beautiful woman her plight—marriage into the Elliots. But he was only the appointed courier of ill news. Except for funerals and christenings, he’d probably never see her again.
    â€œMy mother is ever solicitous of your well-being.” For good measure, he embellished the lie. “And she apologizes most sincerely for the cross words you exchanged.”
    â€œCross? She called me an ill-bred, uncivilized ne’er-do-well.”
    Oh, to be a beetle in the rug during that exchange of feminine fury. “And your reply?”
    Color blossomed on her cheeks and she busied her hands pressing out the folds of her skirts. “I called her a pinched-mouth crow.”
    An apt description, he thought, remembering howhis mother’s lips had thinned with scorn at the mention of Sarah MacKenzie. “She’s deeply sorry for the remark.”
    â€œI don’t believe you. Had she been sincere, she would have come herself.”
    A weak truth came to mind. “I offered to come. I wanted to meet the woman who has captured my brother’s heart and agreed to wed him.”
    â€œShe’s using you.”
    That painful reality struck him a blow. He should redeem his brother’s gambling markers himself and put Edinburgh behind him. Michael could