Marriage to a Mister (A Daughters of Regency #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Expectations that were somehow the same, but very different.
    "It was our hope that perhaps this would happen naturally as time passed, but you never grew close in the way we had hoped."  
    Julian cleared his throat again. "Last night, Lord Blackburn and I discussed the matter of you and Ravenbrook and how wonderful a match you would make. We discussed the matter fully, even foolishly making plans. A few of the other fellows may have overheard us,"
    "May have?" Fleur asked, skeptically.
    "We were a bit loud in our enthusiasm."
    "I see," she said. And she did.
    Julian ran his hands thru his hair, ruining the neat part. "This morning, Lady Blackburn was out in town and people started congratulating her on the upcoming nuptials and pressing for details."
    Fleur pulled her hands from her fathers and grasped them tightly together. "That must have come as quite the shock. What did she say?"
    "Only that it was to be a surprise and the families would make an announcement soon."
    Fleur leaned back into her chair. "Oh."
    "Forgive me, Fleur. I don't know how things got so out of hand. You know as well as I how tongues will wag. I have no defense ... I ... the earl and I do feel it's best that you marry straightaway, but you must know this. I need for you to understand this above all else. You don't have to marry him. You don't have to marry anybody. I will tell the entire British Empire to jump off The Tower if it would please you."
    Fleur tried to muster a small smile, shaky and watery as it was. "And seal Julia's fate as spinster along with my own? You know they always blame the woman in these matters. It would somehow be my fault and then poor Viscount Ravenbrook would be humiliated and I would be a jilt."
    "Edward could use some excitement in his life. The boy is too predictable by half."
    Fleur laughed and shook her head. "Is this how you intend to convince me to marry him? By saying he's dull?"
    Julian grinned and shrugged his shoulders, unable to say more.
    "I have been doing some thinking of my own, Papa, and please believe my sincerity when I say I am a bit weary of the whole thing. The dances, the parties, and being on the 'marriage mart'. I'm three and twenty and have no real marriage prospects, not one person who has come to you for my hand would I have accepted, and I thank you for turning them away, but I do want children and a life of my own. And yes, I have always known you wished I would come to care for Edward in that way. He is a good man."
    Julian anxiously bit his lip. "What are you saying, Fleur? Are you saying yes? That you will have him?"
    She looked downward to her hands. They were red from her own grip, but she released them and blood seemed to flow once more, small tingles running through her fingers. She could not stop herself from thinking of Evan, of that moment when all her hopes of a future with love came crashing down around her, when the man she'd come to care for more than anyone had told her he hoped she never stood in his line of sight again.
    She looked up into her father's eyes, he patiently waiting for her response, and she hesitating. She always hesitated, and in that moment it irritated her. She knew it was time to let that part of her life go – she had to, if she was ever to move on. She thought it was time to take her life into her own hands, and take a chance.
    "I will do it, Papa, I will marry him," she said. A small shiver ran down her spine at the finality of her agreement. "I assume this is to be rushed?"
    Julian's shoulders relaxed slightly, and she knew he was relieved. "Yes, my dear, but do set your mind at ease. Once you accept him you will have time. Lady Blackburn has arranged for a house party at Blackburn Hall to begin in a few days' time. The banns will give you weeks to familiarize yourselves with one another."
    Fleur breathed a sigh of relief of her own. "And when am I to expect him?"  
    "Well, actually, I was hoping... that is to say —"
    "Please don't start that again,