Pirate's Bride (Liberty's Ladies) Read Online Free PDF Page A

birthright in such a way.” He glanced sadly at Marcus. “I understand why she must have hated me. I flatly refused to leave with her and her ‘precious earl’ when she divorced Father. But to abandon Molly, a child who was barely six at the time, for a spoiled jackanape like Nathaniel Talbot is beyond my realm of understanding.”
    “Love does strange things to people,” Marcus philosophically intoned. “Your mother must have loved this man very much to leave her children.”
    “Then I hope never to be struck by Cupid’s arrow.”
    “The way you’re going, my friend, you never will be. Half of the ladies in Philadelphia are eager to have you for a husband.”
    He raised an eyebrow in amused contempt. “Except for Cynthia. She knows how to please a man and doesn’t play games. She is the only woman I know who takes delight in being wealthy and independent and has no use for a man beyond mutual pleasure. The lady will never remarry, and if I weren’t in this situation now, I wouldn’t marry either. The prospect of such an alliance leaves a sour taste in my mouth. My father suffered untold heartache when my mother left him. She caused his ill health, his early death. I’ll never forgive her for hurting him. He loved the blasted woman until the moment he breathed his last. Her name was the last word he spoke.”
    Ian lifted his glass in a toast to Marcus and before downing it said, “No woman shall ever bring me to heel, because I won’t fall in love. Love brings only pain.”
    Marcus nodded. “If you say so, but I intend to one day fall desperately and madly in love.”
    “Fool.”
    “You’re the fool.”
    A merry laugh bubbled up in Ian’s throat. “Not any longer. Before I finish, the high and mighty Earl of Dunsmoor will appear foolish.”
    “Ian…”
    Ian caught the warning sound in Marcus’s voice and grinned, saying nothing further. He left the office and mounted his chestnut-colored roan which waited along the side of the gray stone building. Riding in the direction of home, his heart felt heavy.
    The city bustled with life, and he took a shortcut which led away from the more populated environs of Philadelphia. He didn’t want to chance meeting anyone he knew, and most certainly didn’t wish to make polite conversation, especially not this day. Riding hard along the banks of the Schuykill River, he failed to see the incredibly lush beauty of mid-summer, not the least bit interested in the beautiful women who trailed lazily along its banks, their colorful bonnets blocking the sun from soft, ivory skin.
    At the moment all he wanted to do was to arrive at Edgecomb and lock himself away. However, he knew he couldn’t. He’d never been one to run away from anything in his life. His father, Matthew Briston, had always told him he was a fighter. That when the deck was stacked against him he’d somehow turn out a winner. Ian had endeavored to please his father and his mother when he was young. To his youthful eyes his father was the most intelligent and kindly man, his mother was astonishingly beautiful. He remembered how she’d tuck him in at night when he was a child and plant a loving kiss on his forehead, tell him what a big boy he was and how much she loved him.
    Loved him! Her love had turned out to be as thin as gossamer. She’d gone to England to visit a relative and fallen in love with an uppity earl. Never mind that she and the man were both married to other people. Their lust for each other became the driving force in their lives.
    Ian recalled that until the day she’d sailed for England, his mother had been a different sort of woman, or he had thought her to be a faithful, loving wife. Her actions always bespoke of love for her husband. To prove her devotion to Matthew she’d turned over the running of the shipping company she’d inherited from her father to him when they married, even insisting the name be changed to Briston Shipping. Though Matthew ran the company, and its