Like No Other Lover Read Online Free PDF Page B

fortnight, dinners for the neighbors, and dancing, and so forth. So dance with the girl. Talk with her. Make yourself agreeable by—”
    Oh, for God’s sake.
    “You may be relieved to learn you needn’t tell me how to make myself agreeable to a woman, Father,” he interjected dryly. Or any woman, he didn’t add. But anticipation twinged when he considered making himself agreeable to Lady Middlebough. Georgina was a bit of a complication, but Lady Middlebough’s stay would be brief and she wanted only one thing from him, which should be a simple enough thing to arrange.
    His father gave a short placating laugh. “Yes, of course. Forgive me, Miles. It’s simply that your mother and I are invested in ensuring that our children are well and appropriately matched in a way that does credit to the family. We cannot countenance matches of any other kind.”
    The faintest, faintest whiff of a warning was contained therein.
    The warning was unnecessary. Miles could not imagine an instance in which he would be tempted to make an inappropriate match. Marriage was perhaps the most important business arrangement a man would ever make. He knew by “do credit to the family” Isaiah meant “increase the family fortunes and expand its already outrageous range of influence,” and Miles had no real philosophical objection to this, either.
    “I understand your concern, sir,” he said gravely. “And a match with Lady Georgina would be expeditious for all of us, and I hope for Lady Georgina as well. I’m certain we shall manage to suit.”
    Isaiah went curiously quiet for another moment. At last he nodded.
    “Speaking of concerns, Miles,” his father continued dryly, “I have another of them. Your sister has made the acquaintance of a certain Miss Cynthia Brightly. She has invited said Miss Brightly to our home for a fortnight’s stay.”
    It was as though his father had uncorked a bottle containing a genie. Those two words uttered side by side in his voice—“Cynthia” and “Brightly”—brought her so suddenly and vividly into the room that the muscles banding Miles’s stomach tightened in response. He couldn’t breathe to speak.
    “Yes?” he at last managed calmly enough,.
    His father hesitated. “Word has reached me about Miss Brightly.”
    “What sort of word?”
    His father produced a humorless smile. “Does it matter?”
    No, Miles supposed it did not: “word” reaching one about a young lady was often sufficient warning that the young lady in question was far too interesting. For instance, “word” often reached one about the Everseas, though word had rather reached a crescendo with the recent events surrounding Colin Eversea, and the broadsheets had been rather quieter on the topic of them since then. With the Everseas, however, it was always simply a matter of time.
    One did not find Redmonds in the broadsheets. Good and scrupulous breeding, and the judgment his father described, and money for bribing all manner of officials, took care of that.
    “And Miss Brightly is…” Miles invited his father to complete the sentence with a list of objections. He was suddenly rabidly curious to hear what his father might know of her, and why she was here. Isaiah Redmond did have a way of knowing things.
    “This is all I know so far: she’s far too pretty and charming for someone with no money and no family, very likely ambitious beyond her right to be, surrounded by a cloud of rumor that cannot be substantiated—though I have certainly tried—and in light of this, not at all a suitable companion for Violet or for any of the Redmonds.”
    And thus was the only woman who had ever stopped Miles’s breathing summarized and dismissed by his father.
    Of course, he knew that his father wasn’t at all wrong about Miss Brightly.
    “I imagine Violet wishes to be controversial and has befriended Miss Brightly for this reason,” his father continued, sounding weary and rote as he said this; Violet generally