Perfect Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

your counsel would have been.”
    Justin regarded him through a haze of smoke. “What is behind this sudden decision?”
    “It’s hardly sudden. I’ve been considering it for some time, if you must know. Besides, most men marry. Have children. It’s a matter of duty.”
    “Ah, yes, duty. How predictable,” Justin drawled. “Might I inquire as to the candidates you’re consid ering as your future wife?”
    “You may inquire, but I’ve no particular woman in mind, to be honest. I’ve simply decided to narrow the field.”
    “I see. Yet I am given to wonder if the woman ex ists who can please you.”
    Sebastian leveled an arch look upon him. “Pre cisely what does that mean?”
    “Forgive me,” Justin stated blandly, “but I cannot help but wonder if your requirements may not be rather . . . exacting.”
    “Explain yourself.”
    “Gladly. I think you would demand no less of a wife than you do of yourself. In short, a woman of perfection.”
    Sebastian was ready with a rejoinder. “Not so much a woman of perfection, but the perfect woman for me.”
    “Well,” Justin remarked, “you can certainly be discerning. Society’s ladies do tend to follow you about.”
    “Just as they tend to moon after you.”
    “The ability to charm the opposite sex certainly seems to be in the blood, doesn’t it?”
    Caustic sarcasm swathed in silk—how very typi cal of Justin. Sebastian ignored the jibe about their mother’s infidelities.
    Justin continued. “I’ve been telling you for ages you’re the most sought-after bachelor in London. Now it’s official.”
    “True,” Sebastian agreed. “But let us not mince words. In my case, it’s the title they want. The for tune. Which reminds me”—he raised a brow, re garding Justin through a haze of smoke—“isn’t it time you considered taking a bride as well?”
    Justin dissolved into laughter. “Discharge yourself of the notion at once! I’ll never hang up the ladle, and well you know it.”
    With that, Justin crushed out his cigar and ambled to his feet. Sebastian bid him good night, but did not follow. Loosening his cravat, he poured the last splash of brandy into his glass, then sank down into the big leather chair before the fire.
    His fingers rubbed the back of his neck. Christ, what a night! For a long time he simply sat, allowing the peace and solitude of the night to slip into his bones. God knew, after a night like tonight, he needed it. Besides, this was an excellent time to plan and ponder the future...and his decision to take a bride.
    The duchess was right. It was time he married. Contrary to what Justin might think, it was hardly a sudden decision. No, he’d been thinking about it for weeks now.
    It was time. He was ready.
    But there would be no mistakes.
    There would be no scandal. No slight, no blight upon his name. It was a vow Sebastian had made to himself long, long ago, a vow that drove his every endeavor.
    Ten years had passed since he’d assumed the title. There was now no taint, no shame in being a Ster ling. Much had changed since then.
    Yet in some ways, so very little.
    He was still seeing after his brother and sister— wasn’t tonight proof of it? Justin hadn’t been pleased at his incursion into St. Giles tonight. He smiled slightly, for it was hard to quell such instinct after so many years. Countless times he’d had to remind himself that they must live their own lives, that they must be allowed to make their own choices.
    Their own mistakes.
    But Sebastian could afford none. For there was the not-so-small matter of duty to consider.
    Duty.
    His brother despised it. His sister shunned it, though in a different way than Justin. But William Sterling had taught his eldest son well.
    To marry was his duty. To his name. To his title. His duty was the legacy left behind by his father and the generations before him.
    And yet...there was more. Things Justin wouldn’t understand, might never understand, for he was so like their mother