Love With the Proper Husband Read Online Free PDF Page A

deranged.
    “Forgive him, miss.” Reggie nudged him aside and tipped his hat. “He fancies himself a great wit. Truth is, he hasn’t been the same since he was the victim of a horrible hunting accident last year.” Reggie leaned toward the woman, who eyed him with equal amounts of curiosity and trepidation. “You see, he was mistaken for a buck. Shot right in the—”
    “Sir!” Shock rang in the lady’s voice but Marcus swore he saw what might be the tiniest glint of reluctant amusement in her eye.
    “That’s quite enough,” Marcus said mildly. “And patently false as well. I can assure you I have never been shot in any part of my person, neither accidentally nor deliberately.”
    “I find that exceedingly difficult to believe.” The young woman’s forbidding and vaguely familiar expression was unchanged, but now Marcus was certain she was, however unwillingly, amused. “I would not be at all surprised to learn more than a few shots have been directed at your person, for the arrogance of your manner if nothing else.”
    Reggie laughed. “She’s got you there, old man.”
    “Indeed she does,” Marcus said coolly.
    Reggie grinned at her as if they were coconspirators. “Any number of people would like to shoot him, miss. It was no more than an entertaining fancy on my part that someone actually had.”
    “My friend is easily amused.” Marcus stepped aside and nodded cordially. “I fear we have detained you far too long. Again, my apologies, miss.”
    “Certainly.” She lifted her chin, marched past them, and proceeded briskly down the stairs. Marcus watched her with his usual sense of appreciation for the sway of attractive hips and toyed with the passing notion that there was more to this woman than met the eye. Not that it was any of his concern, of course.
    “She’s unaccompanied, Marcus.” Reggie’s gaze lingered on the figure rapidly vanishing down the stairwell. “Not so much as a maid with her. Odd, don’t you think? She’s well spoken enough, obviously a woman of quality.”
    “Yes, but her cuffs were frayed,” Marcus said thoughtfully. “And her gown is sadly out of style.”
    “Ugly as well. Too—”
    “Proper? Stiff? Dull?”
    “Exactly.” Reggie nodded. “Seems a pity. I’d wager there is a fetching figure beneath that drab gown and an intriguing story behind those eyes. She could well be the victim of dire circumstances beyond her control. And sorely in need of assistance, even rescue. Why, I should probably see—”
    “You most certainly should not.” Marcus took his friend’s elbow firmly, steered him away from the stairs and down the corridor toward the solicitor’s office.
    Viscount Berkley, Reginald, Reggie , was Marcus’s closest friend and his oldest. Their country estates were in the same county, and the men had grown up side by side. In many ways they were as alike as brothers. In others they couldn’t be more dissimilar.
    Reggie had the most annoying tendency to imagine himself in the manner of a knight of old, rescuing fair maidens and damsels in distress. Most times the lady in question neither wanted nor needed the proffered rescuing and always Reggie offered his heart along with his assistance. As for Marcus, he was certainly no rescuer of helpless females but he’d always had a fondness for mysteries and a corner of his mind lingered on the enigma presented by a pair of fetching eyes, a nicely rounded derrière and an air at odds with the obvious circumstances of her existence. It had been his experience that only women born to his own station in life ever met a gentleman’s gaze with the unflinching directness she’d displayed and even then, such women were exceedingly rare. In truth, the only other women he could recall ever speaking in so firm and direct a manner to him had been those entrusted with his care as a child. His mother, of course, nursemaids, governesses—
    He chuckled. “I daresay your damsel in distress is more than capable of