Never a Bride Read Online Free PDF Page A

was warm for a late spring afternoon. It was clear they had not been living well and were afraid to come right out and tell him. He didn’t want to bring up the subject and ask embarrassing questions when he’d been home for less than five minutes.
    He placed his untouched drink on the round butler’s table in front of him and calmly said, “All right, we’ll skip the chitchat. Why doesn’t someone tell me why Mama wrote me that I was neglecting my family and my fiancée by not coming home sooner? What dire circumstance has happened to this family that required me to return home immediately?”
    “Oh, nothing out of the ordinary, dear,” his mother said, leaning forward. “We wanted you to come home because we love you, and we’ve missed you.”
    Her tone was sincere. He believed she truly wanted him home because she loved him, but from the chilling atmosphere in the room he knew there had to be something more. Everyone was tense.
    “And?” he finally said.
    “You belong here,” his father said. “It was time for you to come home and marry the lady you promised to wed. Past time.”
    His father’s clipped tone did nothing to ease the tension. “Why?” He looked pointedly at his mother before turning his gaze toward his father. “I allowed you to make the marriage contract for the benefit of this family. There was no time limit put on the date of my return that I’m aware of.”
    “No.” The earl’s tone was brusque suddenly. “Surely Miss Whittingham’s father didn’t expect you to stay away so long. Nor, I assume, did your future bride.”
    Camden didn’t like the sound of the word “bride.” When he first left England, he told himself that if he stayed away long enough the young lady would get tired of waiting, find a husband of her choosing and force her father to break the engagement. That never happened. Which led him to believe that his fiancée was not a young lady he needed to rush home to. If she was beautiful or intelligent surely some other man would have been clamoring for her hand long before now.
    “I’m quite willing to bow out of this engagement without any consequence if that’s what the young lady and her father would like.”
    “No!” The word echoed throughout the room.
    It surprised Camden that his mother, father, and Hudson, who’d just perched on the arm of the small sofa, said “No” at the same time.
    “What’s going on?” he asked again. “All of you are acting like I’m about to sit on a cushion filled with needles.”
    “Nothing is wrong,” his father said.
    “Nothing that your return doesn’t take care of,” his mother added with a bright smile as she tucked her handkerchief under the sleeve at her wrist.
    Camden couldn’t let it go. His father had needed money when the marriage contract was arranged, and an uneasy feeling in his stomach had Camden believing that was the case now.
    “Sir, just tell me what is going on here,” Camden said.
    “All right,” his father said in an exasperated tone. “Mr. Whittingham threatened terminating the engagement if you didn’t return by this Season’s end and start making plans for a wedding.”
    “I’ve already stated I’m agreeable to letting the young lady out of the engagement.”
    “We’re not,” the earl said.
    “We need that money from—”
    “Norine.” Wilson cut off his wife’s soft voice, and he gave her a stern warning with his eyes before returning his attention to Camden.
    But his mother had already taken the bloom off the rose. He now understood the circumstances and the dire need for him to hurry home. They needed money. His parents wanted to make sure the engagement wasn’t broken.
    “Quite frankly,” his father continued, “I had to agree with Whittingham that a wedding was long overdue. I’ll send a message to him right away that you are home, and we can start making arrangements immediately.”
    Camden felt a tightening in his chest. For six years, he’d been his own man.