Reason to Wed (The Distinguished Rogues Book 7) Read Online Free PDF

acquaintances, and the entertainments organized for the coming days.
    Everything but the fact they were still holding hands.

Four

    Richard braced his hands on the stone bannister above the great ballroom and scanned the exuberant crowd twirling below. He had made sure he’d invited an equal numbers of ladies and gents for the ten-day house party. But to his chagrin, the ladies he’d considered his best chances for improving his acquaintance with had already paired off with other men while he’d been locked away with Esme, pretending to enjoy a jolly romp in his bed.
    Damn Esme and her long face .
    He hadn’t thought through his decision to save Esme from embarrassment properly and paid the price for it now. Although he had to admit that the chaste encounter hadn’t been entirely a waste time. He thought, perhaps, he and Esme had reached an accord over the past. He felt entirely better for that and looked forward to more civil conversation with the lady in the future.
    “I think the party is a resounding success,” Jillian, his younger sister, murmured as she looked over the assembled guests with pride shining on her face.
    A great deal of the arrangements for the party had fallen into her capable hands and he was pleased to see her in such good spirits. She’d been entirely too quiet since returning home following the death of her husband of three years. Benjamin’s death last winter had knocked the joy from her eyes and he could almost see it glimmering there again. “You’ve exceeded my expectations, little sister. Very well done indeed.”
    He saw nothing but disappointment below him though. The woman he’d invited with the secret purpose of considering for marriage, Lady Beatrice Small, was dancing in the arms of someone else, and, given what he’d heard of her unguarded opinions to Esme earlier in the evening, Richard had concluded Beatrice be a great deal too much trouble as a wife.
    He couldn’t marry a prudish woman. Oh, no indeed. He needed a sensible, open-minded woman who was not easily offended. His brother Avery was bound to frighten away any timid souls he might consider for his wife, so he had to choose with his head too. “I think this might be our last year. What do you say to a summer by the sea next year?”
    Jillian, unaware of the source of his disappointment, laughed outright at his suggestion. “You love showing off the estate, and summer wouldn’t be the same without this event and our friends visiting.”
    As he glanced down, he spotted the prickly, if occasionally lovely Esme, speaking with the friends she’d made among the locals over the past years of visits. His cousins had finally made an appearance and the pair hung on her every word. She charmed everyone she met, made them feel like wanted, desirable companions—all except him, normally.
    A pity, that. He had owed Esme the favor of rescue from embarrassment.
    Esme had saved him from a grievous mistake. He still felt the fool for being nearly duped into marrying a woman who pretended to be carrying his child.
    He was still astonished Esme had thought him worth rescuing in the first place.
    Damn Esme for revealing her hurt feelings.
    His sister nudged his arm. “Don’t skulk about like this. Go and mingle with your guests.”
    “Soon,” he murmured, distracted by Esme’s warm smile to Mr. Miles Hammond, who’d joined her little group. He tensed at the ease between them. Esme and Hammond were very old friends and frequent companions around London of late. He was fairly sure they’d never been lovers, but with Esme one could never be certain of anything. Until tonight’s farce with him, she’d always been incredibly discreet in her affairs. “Tell me why I invited Hammond again?”
    “Because he is Esme’s friend and you thought having him here, too, would lend her support,” Jillian said with a laugh. “He’s actually very nice once you can get him to talk.”
    As if sensing his scrutiny, Hammond glanced up to