Miss Winters Proposes Read Online Free PDF

and well.”
    He let out a small breath. “I will speak with the vicar tomorrow. How do you wish to proceed with the nuptials?”
    “Well, I, well…I’m not certain. I honestly haven’t given the matter much consideration.”
    His dark eyes rolled heavenward. “You have undergone the steps necessary to force my hand but have given no thought as to how to proceed with the ceremony?”
    She had been too engrossed with making arrangements and conjuring up her courage to dwell upon a detail that only now seemed significant. She lifted her eyes to the pair of disbelieving ones now glaring in her direction.
    “Well I…I know I would like to marry before my father passes.”
    Which was an undetermined and vague amount of time, she knew, but her father’s illness was unlike any she had ever seen. Though the apothecary advised her to ready and prepare herself for loss, she couldn’t help but notice her father’s improved physical appearance. His cheeks, while still rosy, were no longer flush with fever. His brow was no longer drenched with sweat. Even his cough had lessened, the wet, rattling sound having given way to a dry, almost forced, guffaw.
    Lord Colwyn clasped his hands behind his back. “Then I advise we proceed with due haste, lest your father’s health take a turn for the worse…and your cousin wills the tragedy to his advantage.”
    Juliet eyed the viscount. “My cousin may be a little…thoughtless with his words, but he would not be so devious and coldhearted as to wish me harm in my time of grief.”
    “No?” The viscount’s gaze rested on the three pointers who had cozened up to her side. “Perhaps he shares in the family predisposition for kidnapping and decides the acquisition of these fine hounds is worth a ransom?”
    “What precisely are you implying, Lord Colwyn?” She placed a protective hand on Horatio’s head.
    “Only that trust is a virtue not easily won. Especially when it comes by Mr. Frederick Winters.”
    There was a definite animosity between the two men. Juliet was certain she was not imagining the viscount’s crisp tone or stiffened posture. But how or why such antipathy existed remained unclear.
    “What has my cousin done that you should think so little of him?”
    A muscle in the viscount’s jaw tensed. “I think our time would be better spent discussing ways to convince him of our affection, Juliet.”
    She blinked, stunned by his verbally pleasing, but uncomfortably familiar, use of her name. “I beg your pardon, my lord?”
    “What better way to convince your cousin of our familiarity than through the use of our Christian names?” he asked. One corner of his mouth lifted. “There is only one other female who deigns to call me such and she carries the title of my sister.”
    He had a sister? She hadn’t realized he had any family. Not that such a revelation was a surprise. She hardly knew anything of her reclusive neighbor. In the two years since he had moved into Darlington Hall, she had made his acquaintance only once—the day he sought to secure stud services for his hound, almost two months prior. And while he maintained a relatively close connection with her father, he almost went out of his way to avoid her. Why, even the Duke of Waverly, a peer well above her father and whose numerous estates dotted the countryside, made time to converse with her when visiting Thornhaven, his neighboring retreat.
    “I would not presume to know such intimacy,” Juliet whispered.
    His handsome and rugged face tilted toward her. He clasped her hand between his own. The simple gesture made her heart pound.
    “You are to be my wife, Juliet. Allow me the courtesy and address me by my given name. Please.”
    He stood so close she could smell the scent of pine, musk, and wood smoke lingering on his clothes. She almost leaned forward to discern if any other masculine scents had settled onto the wool of his coat before her cheeks flushed at the intimacy he offered.
    “I do not know