Bonds of Matrimony Read Online Free PDF Page A

not going to play?'
    'I don't like being hurried when I choose the books I want to read. It takes me ages to make up my mind.' She cast him a surreptitious look to see how he was reacting to this confession. 'I don't want to keep you waiting.'
    'Then let's go and I'll feed you instead,' he said.
    'You don't have to,' she said. 'I can go ages between meals - like a camel. If you'd rather walk—'
    'I don't get offered cups of tea in shops!' The old-fashioned look that accompanied the remark made her laugh.
    'I don't usually either,' she confided, 'but they're always nice to me in here.'
    'You must be a good customer.'
    'I suppose so,' she acknowledged. 'There's not all that much to do on the farm except read, and ride, and that sort of thing.'
    He took her arm, opening the door for her, and bowing with a grin to the intrigued assistants in the shop. Hero tried to step away from him once they were safely out on the pavement, but he tightened his grasp, smiling at her with a look of mischief in his eyes.
    'You won't find it easy to get away from me now, Miss Kaufman.'
    She thought that she had already discovered that. She was conscious of his touch on her arm.
    'Where are we going?' she asked.
    'Where would you like to go? The New Stanley's Thom Tree cafe?'
    She nodded. What did it matter after all? She knew now that she would never raise her courage sufficiently to make it clear to him that she was not going to marry him, whatever the advantages to herself. When he had torn up her letter, he had tom up her one route of escape. She just couldn't look him in the face and tell him. He would laugh at her for a simpleton and dismiss her objections as foolish nonsense and she would be in exactly the same position as she was now.
    The Thom Tree was a pavement cafe, but happily they were able to find a table in the shade and Hero was so glad to be free of his firm grasp on her arm that she sat down with a positive sense of relief, allowing her eyes to stray round the other customers in case there was anyone else there whom she knew.
    'Oh, look!' she said with a great deal of nervous excitement. 'There's Bob Andrews. You don't mind if I have a word with him, do you?'
    'Friend of yours?' Mr. Carmichael drawled.
    'Sort of,' she admitted. 'Ah, he's coming over here.' She bounced up and down in her seat to attract the young man's attention. She liked Bob Andrews and she knew that he liked her too. At the moment, like everyone else she could think of, he was more than half in love with Betsy and he had found Hero a noble ally in the cause. She didn't mind in the least being used as a stalking horse for his real objective and they had had a lot of fun together, plotting Betsy's conquest at his hands. He was the one person whom Hero allowed to kiss her, knowing that he meant nothing by it, and when he greeted her now, planting a smacking kiss on her lips, she made no objection at all, but merely hoped that Mr. Carmichael had noticed.
    'Bob, this is Mr. Carmichael. Mr. Carmichael, Bob Andrews,' she introduced them, with a-sidelong glance at the man she was to marry, her dark eyes darker still with triumph.
    Mr. Carmichael rose slowly to his feet. He was not so tall as Bob and not so obviously handsome but, somehow, he made all such considerations seem remarkably unimportant. Hero tried to persuade herself that he looked insignificant, but he didn't. On the contrary, he had quietly dominated the whole situation with a brief smile and a firm handshake.
    'It's Benedict Carmichael. I prefer Benedict to Ben, but so far, I haven't persuaded Hero to use either name — '
    Bob Andrews was completely at home. 'She's naturally shy!' he teased Hero. 'Her mother was always telling her about the dreadful things that befall forward girls! Like — ' he screwed up his face into a thoughtful expression - 'like getting involved with men she knows nothing about! Forward girls can expect nothing but the worst—' He became aware of Hero's urgent signals to shut up