Bonds of Matrimony Read Online Free PDF Page B

Didn't Hero tell you? Nothing will grow there now!'
    'We haven't had time to talk about anything much yet,' Mr. Carmichael returned, which was nice of him, Hero considered, for she was well aware that she had deliberately kept to herself the state of her inheritance when she had offered it as a bribe for him to marry her.
    'I suppose not,' said Bob. 'See you both later, I hope. Betsy's invited me round for drinks tomorrow evening
    - I'll probably see you there.' He sketched a salute with his hand, pausing by Hero's chair to give her a friendly pat on the head. 'I'd better not kiss you again with your fiance looking on!' he teased her. 'That's one of the pleasures you'll have to give up for the delights of matrimony. Good-bye, honey!'
    Hero managed a stuttered good-bye in reply. This was worse than anything she had expected. What was she to do?
    'Tell me about the farm, Hero,' Mr. Carmichael's voice interrupted her thoughts. 'I gather it isn't quite the dowry I expected?'
    'No,' she admitted.
    'How bad is it?'
    She had expected him to be angry, but he wasn't obviously so. She eyed him covertly, wondering how she was going to explain to him about failing rains and ruined soil. Did he know what it meant when the one rainstorm they had had in the last three years had washed away most of the topsoil her father had laboured long and hard to protect, exposing the roots of their precious trees and killing the grass and the few crops they had been able to grow.
    'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I thought you wouldn't find out until afterwards. The rains may come this year — ' 'Have you slaughtered all the cattle?'
    She shook her head. 'Not yet. My father was experimenting with his own breed and I couldn't let them go. I was hoping, when the time came, that it would be someone else's decision. I did try to sell them to a farm
    further south, but the deal fell through.'
    'I suppose you've had the usual troubles with erosion?' he queried.
    She started. He was no fool. 'How do you know about that?'
    'Did you imagine that I would accept your offer blind?' he observed. 'I'm reasonably familiar with everything your father tried to do, my dear. I know about the Kaufman specials, for instance. They sound an interesting experiment.'
    'Then you knew I was offering you next to nothing by offering you the farm?' How much else did he know?
    'Yes, I knew,' he agreed. 'I imagine it looks all right on paper, or you could make it do so, and that was all right with me. I'm well able to look after myself, and I soon came to the conclusion you were asking for everything you get if I took you up on your offer. I don't think you deserve much consideration from me, do you?'
    She supposed she deserved that. 'No,' she said. 'But you don't understand. I hadn't thought about you as a person at all! I told you I couldn't go through with it, but you wouldn't pay any attention. I wrote to you — '
    'I still want the farm. It will suit my purposes very well. How soon can you get yourself ready to marry me?'
    She stared at him, a little frightened of his calm. 'As soon as you like,' she managed.
    'Next week?'
    She nodded. This week, next week, some time, never; what did it matter? She would soon be in England and then she would never have to see him again.
    'Thank you for making it sound - ordinary to Bob,' she said, not looking at him. 'I didn't want him to know — '
    'Think nothing of it,' he said. 'You'd do the same for me, wouldn't you?'
    Well, of course she would! At least she hoped she would - but would she? 'I don't suppose you'd ever want me to,' she said. 'You wouldn't want your girl to think you were in love with someone else, would you? And it wouldn't arise with anyone else!'
    Benedict Carmichael said nothing at all. He ordered tea for two and an ice-cream for her, just as though he were taking his niece out to tea, and when Hero said she didn't want milk in her tea and wanted lemon instead, he raised his brows and grinned at her, as if he knew exactly what she