Grace Gibson Read Online Free PDF Page A

you. No expense was spared in my upbringing I assure you, and although I do not admit to an academic turn of mind I am not a duncecap.”
    She countered his attack with airy unconcern. “No, I do not suppose you are, particularly when it comes to blood sports and gaming dens and…other places that would put me to the blush.”
    At point non plus , he coloured darkly and bowed. “I beg your pardon, Miss Fanley. I thought only to play whatever game amuses you. You are certainly in no need of my help in reading or any other regard.”
    After many days of dealing him rough treatment following this rather direct exchange, Mary felt she had taken sufficient revenge on the Lord for his criminal manners. As with most females who smell victory over a male adversary, she began to be in charity with him. She could not take him seriously, for he was a Marquis, and that fact made him somewhat ridiculous to her. But she could now banter with him, having cleared the hurdle of her raw feelings over his initial high handedness.
    But just as she would have relented, Denley began to view his progress with Miss Fanley with the gravest of misgivings. He felt certain he would never recover from such an unlover-like error as to mistake her for a household servant; indeed, Mary had begun to treat him with a comfortable familiarity and disdain which spelled doom to romance. At this perfectly unprofitable time, after his first month of exile, the Marquis of Denley waited upon his uncle, who returned to Greenly to judge for himself the progress of his plan.
    After all the necessary politeness, tea and comfortable conversation, Lord Eversham at last found Denley alone in the main salon of the house perusing a list of improvements he planned for Treehill. There being no familial affection to overcome, the Marquis started straightaway with his business. “I have here an account of the work to be done to make Treehill a habitable estate. Will you approve it? Or perhaps I had better ask — will you fund it?”
    Eversham took the proffered paper and carefully read it through. “How is your suit with Miss Fanley?”
    “She is civil enough to me.”
    Eversham’s face turned sharp. “That does not sound to me to be promising.”
    “I did not intend that it would.”
    “You have faults enough, Robert, but I had not thought lack of understanding was among them. She is a young woman of some sense and a little education, who has seen nothing of the world. Any man who applied himself could make an impression on such a person.”
    “I cannot make her love me!”
    “Of course you can.”
    “As I arrived here at Greenly Manor, a rabbitty, brown-haired creature opened the door, dressed in a blue muslin gown such as my old nurse would own. She welcomed me with an air of such relaxation that I mistook her for the housekeeper.”
    “You amaze me. You arrived in the country and expected Miss Fanley to wear silk at some morning hour?”
    “Ah, now you, Uncle, lack understanding. The devil is in the fact that she perceived my mistake and has punished me since.”
    Lord Eversham looked back at the inventory of work for Treehill. He spent several silent moments doing calculations in his head before he gravely put it down. “I have been too subtle for you, Denley. You are, I believe, surrendering before you have begun to fight.”
    “I see no point!” cried the young man. “I willingly go to Treehill upon completion of a habitable residence. Thus you are relieved. But to force me to woo a woman for whom I have no real inclination and who returns me nothing but wit and impertinence is a cruelty, Uncle!”
    “Have I been unclear? I cannot believe so. You remove to Treehill when you are married, Robert, not before. I cannot expect you to stay there a full month: erelong your gamesters and profligates will descend on Treehill to avail themselves of your, er, hospitality. The place will be a gaming hell in a matter of days. No. I will not let that pass. Only a