How to Wed a Baron Read Online Free PDF Page B

didn’t I just paint myself into a corner with my tongue? Very well, that I also continue pretending that I am a pretty yet brainless twit.”
    Alina looked him up and down, amazed to hear a man call himself pretty; besides, he was much too much the male to be termed pretty, even in his fashionable clothes. But what did he mean? Pretending. Pretending what? Had she been betrothed to a lunatic?
    â€œYou’re saying that you’re not a brainless twit? Are you quite certain of that?”
    â€œAt this precise moment? No.” His smile reached all the way to his eyes, but then stopped, as if something barred the way. “Very well, then. We shall for the moment allow the definition of secretary to stand.”
    â€œI don’t recall granting it permission to sit down,” Alina said, with just the sort of offhand sarcasm that had landed her in trouble so often, had called her to the king’s attention in ways that probably had hastened her banishment to an English marriage. Shebehaves as if she’s queen, her aunt had told anyone who would listen. Queen of the Romany, I suppose, for all her thin Englisher blood.
    Alina walked forward once more, her gaze on the major’s militarily straight spine. “He’d die for me, you know.”
    â€œCommendable of the major, I suppose. Allow me, please, to point out Brutus, my, um, secretary, lumbering along just ahead of yours. He’d kill for me. Of the two choices, I much prefer the latter. The major is fearful for your safety. But you’re aware of that, of course.”
    Alina had been so busy trying to keep up with this verbal sparring that it took her a moment to understand what the baron was implying. “My safety? No, that can’t be correct. You’ve misunderstood his mission, one for which he volunteered. Luka is concerned for my welfare. He was my father’s aide-de-camp, and therefore feels responsible for me. Unless you’re telling me that England is an unsafe place?”
    The baron looked at her for a long moment, and then smiled, another smile that did not quite reach those unsettling green eyes. “Forgive me, my lady, clearly I mistook his purpose. And I assure you, England for you is as safe as houses. Indeed, you will have the entire kingdom at your feet the moment you first appear in Society.”
    â€œThat is my intention, yes,” she told him, notunderstanding why she dared this impertinence, but enjoying herself all the same. He seemed to like teasing her, surprising her, for what reason she didn’t know. Why not return the favor?
    Begin as you plan to go on. That’s what he’d said. As a good wife, she shouldn’t disappoint him. And what a shame that they must marry, be bound to each other by duty. He would be so much more fun to flirt with, wouldn’t he? As a husband, however, he might be more trouble than even his handsome face and enticing smile could overcome.
    The baron cocked an eyebrow. “You’re quite the honest little thing, aren’t you? Some would consider that a failing.”
    â€œWould you be one of those people?”
    â€œAh, and inquisitive, as well.”
    â€œInquisitive enough to have noticed that you have carefully sidestepped my question, my lord,” Alina said, her heart beating faster yet again. Goodness, but the man made her feel delightfully alive! “I shall have to be exceedingly careful around you, won’t I?”
    He looked down into her face, his expression suddenly too intense, so that she looked away. “On the contrary. I believe it is I who will have to be exceptionally careful around you. I hadn’t expected to like you.”
    She kept her eyes on the street at her feet, pretending polite indifference even as she felt ridiculouslypleased that he’d said—admitted, really, as if it was some sort of failing of his own—that he liked her. “Oh. And…and is that so