Seduction Becomes Her Read Online Free PDF Page B

arrived in the morning room, they discovered him already there. The oak buffet was again covered with trays and plates of food—kidneys, rashers of bacon, thick slices of country ham, warm crusty rolls, eggs, and fruit. Adrian dug into the food like a starving wolf.

    Which was just as well, thought Daphne, watching him return to the sideboard for a third time. At seventeen, he was still slim as a reed, but his shoulders had broadened this past year, and even without his boots, he stood over six feet. She suspected that he was not through growing yet, either. Their father had been a very tall man, and Adrian looked to have inherited his father’s height along with the Captain’s thick black hair and brilliant blue eyes. Daphne did not consider herself prejudiced, but she rather thought that her brother was going to grow up to be a very handsome man, and now with a respectable fortune behind him, he would have a wide array of eminently suitable young ladies from which to choose his bride.

    Her fond gaze fell upon April, who was nibbling on a roll spread with strawberry jam. If Adrian took after their father, April was the image of her mother, possessing the same gorgeous mane of wheat-fair hair, limpid blue eyes, and dainty frame. Daphne had always hoped that April’s gentle nature and fair loveliness would enable her to make a decent match, but now with Adrian’s unexpected inheritance and his promise to settle a sum on his little sister, her sights had been raised. In due time, April would have a season in London…Daphne’s cheeks pinkened with delight as she pictured her younger sister snaring a wealthy, perhaps even titled suitor.

    That her thoughts were more those of a mother with a son and daughter to settle than those of an older sister with her own future to consider did not enter Daphne’s mind. With her father often gone and her mother unable to cope with military life, Daphne had been the mainstay of the family, taking on responsibility for the small household from an early age. Her mother had always been sickly, and when her siblings had arrived, Daphne had effortlessly filled in the breach and taken over the care of the younger ones. There hadn’t ever been any question of her having a London season, and even the idea of marriage had only crossed her mind once. When she was eighteen, there had been a young Lieutenant who had been most particular in his attentions, and for a little while, she had dreamed of marriage, a husband and a home on her own. Unfortunately, before they could marry, the Lieutenant had been killed in one of those nameless little skirmishes in India, and that had put paid to Daphne’s romantic dreams.

    It never occurred to Daphne to resent the fact that her life had been sacrificed for her family—in fact, she would have been quite indignant at that notion and would have scoffed at the use of the word sacrifice. She was perfectly happy in the role she had been given and was content to live out her days as a beloved spinster sister and later, a doting aunt to the many nephews and nieces she was sure would follow. After all, she reminded herself from time to time, she had no fortune, although if Sir Huxley’s estate proved large enough, Adrian was determined to settle a sum on her as well as on his younger sister. April’s gentle loveliness alone would insure that she made a decent match—at least Daphne had hoped so, but she had long ago faced the reality that she certainly wasn’t the beauty that April was. Not for her, the glorious fair hair, dreamy blue eyes, and delicate frame. No, it had been her luck to take after their father, and while there had been a time she had despaired of her height and boyish body, she had years ago accepted the fact that she would never be a beauty. She was a beanpole topped by an unruly mass of black hair, and that was that. Sometimes, though, when she looked in the mirror at her hazel eyes and olive skin, inherited, she was told, from her