His Jilted Bride (Historical Regency Romance) Read Online Free PDF Page A

to.
Gently, of course. He'd never been cruel about her feelings or
dismissive of her as a person, just the sincerity of a young girl's
feelings. But try as she might, she couldn't fall out of love as
easily as she'd fallen in. Only now, she didn't dare let him or
anyone know the truth. He wanted to be her friend and that'd have
to be good enough. “But what if I have a secret?” she
challenged.
    He pulled a face that reminded her of
his late father. “It's not that you're genuinely in love with Lord
Friar, is it?”
    “ Most certainly not! It has nothing to do with him.” At least
it had better not. She'd still yet to determine the identity of the
masked stranger, and for all she knew it could have been Lord Friar. Her
stomach lurched at the wretched thought. “It's something
else.”
    Elijah's gloved fingers tilted her
face up toward his. “As long as it's not that, I don't care what it
is. Now, what do you say?”
    A lead weight lowered on her chest. He
might say he didn't care about her secret, but how would he feel in
nine months when she presented him with a child that wasn't his? Or
even sooner when he went to take her innocence only to discover it
was already gone?
    His deep sigh pulled her from her
thoughts. “You'd be doing me a favor, wouldn't you
know?”
    How could she be doing him a favor? “How
so?”
    “ Now that Weenie and Alex have both married, Mother has nobody
to play matchmaker for except me and Henry, and if I'm
married...that only leaves Henry.”
    Amelia nearly laughed. “Your mother
doesn't play matchmaker, Elijah.” She played the role of confidant
and voice of sanity to perfection, but never once had Amelia caught
Regina Banks, the dowager baroness, playing matchmaker.
    “ Just because she hasn't yet, doesn't mean she doesn't intend
to,” Elijah pointed out. “She and my Aunt Carolina have been
spending a lot of
time together recently. And there is nothing that can stop that woman when she takes a notion into her mind. So what do
you say? Will you spare me the unpleasant fate that would befall me
otherwise?”
    “ All right, but only if you promise me something.”
    “ Anything.”
    “ No matter what happens, you won't regret this?”
    Elijah grinned and shook his head. “I
accept your condition. Now we just have to sneak you out of here.”
He walked over to a window and opened it just far enough to poke
his head out. “Perfect.” He pushed open the window as far as it
would go and motioned for her to come over. “All right, I'll climb
out first and then help pull you through.”
    She cast him a tentative glance. “Is
that really necessary?”
    He stared at her as if she'd just
asked the stupidest question ever. “Do you know another way to get
out of here without being seen?”
    “ No.” But that still didn't mean she wanted to climb out a
window.
    “ Don't worry, Amelia. I'll be right there to help
you.”
    “ Wonderful,” she muttered as he threw his left leg over the
window sill, then his right.
    He jumped down and took a step back.
“All right, Amelia, let's see those superb leaping skills you used
to boast about having.”
    Had she a heavy object at her
disposal—and not been in the middle of escaping what was sure to be
the scandal of the season—she'd have brained him right then and
there. With as much grace as her heavy satin gown would allow, she
made her way to the window, pulled her skirt up as far as she
could, and then threw one stocking-clad leg over the
windowsill.
    And that's as far as she
got.
    Between the heavy skirts and the
voluminous petticoats underneath them, she couldn't
move.
    “ Elijah, help me. I think my skirt is stuck.”
    He grinned at her.
    “ Elijah, why are you just standing there?”
    “ Just admiring the view,” he said with a wink.
    “ Elijah!” She gave her dress a hearty
yank, but it would seem her iron hoop stays were too wide to go
through the window. “You can gawk all you want later. Just help me
out.”
    “ Promises,