Caversham's Bride (The Caversham Chronicles - Book One) Read Online Free PDF Page A

go through again. Unlike most of his set, he actually loved his father and respected him.
    “All was going fairly well until a few months ago. Thomas sent a note that he needed to speak to me. I invited him to come to Haldenwood, and asked him to stay for the holidays because I was planning to announce my betrothal over Christmas. According to his letter, I expected him to arrive on a Thursday afternoon. He didn’t appear. I thought he was just delayed, and that surely he’d come. Two days later, he’d sill not arrived, and I went out on a stag hunt with a few of the local gentry. Someone shot at me as I rode through a field. I was not hit, but my horse was. I had to finish off my favorite stallion right there.
    “My game-keeper immediately went to where the shot came from, and gave chase. He got a good look at the man as he rode away.”
    “Tell me no,” Hakim whispered.
    Now feeling a surprising lack of emotion, Ren nodded. “A few weeks later, as my grandmother was preparing for Lady Margaret’s family to descend upon Haldenwood for the holidays, we receive word that my soon-to-be-bride is very ill and unable to attend. I sent my family physician to see to her, and he returns with a most shocking tale. It seems she miscarried a child that was not mine. And what’s worse, in her fevered delirium, she called out for my cousin.”
    The three men sat in silence for several long minutes, digesting the tale Ren had just relived for them. It felt good to actually speak of it all, knowing the men he told would never betray his trust. He’d not been able to speak of it so thoroughly before, because not long after the incident with Margaret, Ren had left England, without speaking of his emotions to anyone. Including his closest friend, Michael.
    He inhaled deeply from his cigar, and exhaled as he spoke. “If something were to happen to me, Thomas is next in line to inherit.” He raked a hand over his face to wipe away the growing emotion. Once he had that under control, he continued, “I have my grandmother, and sisters, Elise and Sarah, to think of. Now I must see to finding another suitable bride to make a duchess. She must be pleasant to look upon, and accomplished in the skills necessary to do the job.”
    Hakim laughed. “You sound as though you were purchasing a horse or hound. Was there no affection? I desire my wives a great deal, all six of them, as well as the thirty-two other women in my harim .”
    “Even a man of your position should have a wife he desires. Not one that ‘will do,’” said the physician. “Find a woman you desire, take her to wife, then see to creating the heir. That is the order of things.”
    “I have to agree with him there.” Hakim stated. “We are fast approaching thirty years. I’ve known younger men to die of natural causes.” He took another long swig of his wine. “Is there no other suitable female in all of England who is still virtuous?”
    “If there are, they must still be in the schoolroom,” Ren replied sarcastically, exhaling a cloud of smoke. Spontaneous laughter erupted as Hakim re-filled his glass, and then Ren’s, finishing off the bottle.
    “I dread going through all the pretense again to find the proper wife. You know I do not do the social games well.” He lifted his glass, and stared into the contents. “Yet, it seems I must again play the town dandy to find a bride. It tires and bores me.” Pushing back from the table, Ren prepared to rise. “But, ’tis just one of the necessary evils a man must endure, I suppose, to continue the family line.” Fed up with the topic, Ren turned to the men. “Excuse me, please. I must leave now, if I am to assist a certain green-eyed waif.”
    Ismael looked puzzled and Ren explained.
    Afterward, the physician turned to Hakim. “You know,” he said casually, “if he were Muslim he could buy his way out of his current predicament.”
    Hakim and Ismael exchanged foxed grins, Hakim’s eyes becoming