So Wild a Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

hand."
    "No doubt he does. However, I am not looking for a husband, let alone one who must be schooled like a child. I came here only because my father was eager for me to meet Lord Ravenscar, and I feel that I have done enough to satisfy my obligation to him. Papa?" She turned to Joseph. "I am ready to take our leave now."
    "Oh, surely, not," Joseph protested immediately. "Why, there's, uh..."
    "Cards, later, in the drawing room," Rachel supplied. “I believe Lady Ravenscar promised your father a game of whist."
    "Yes, that's it. Whist. Quite looking forward to it."
    "Very well, then," Miranda said reasonably. "I shall take the carriage home and send it back for you later."
    "Please." Rachel reached out impulsively and took Miranda's hand. "Can I not persuade you to remain a few minutes longer? My brother is rude, I agree, but he is a good man at heart, I promise you. He is, as you doubtless are, reluctant to enter into this sort of relationship."
    "I must think the more highly of him for that," Miranda agreed. ' 'However, if he is reluctant and I am reluctant, there seems little purpose in our meeting. No doubt he realized it, and that is why he did not come tonight. But it would be foolish of me indeed to linger here in that case."
    Rachel sighed. Miranda squeezed her hand and smiled. She had liked Lord Ravenscar's sister from the moment she met her. The young woman had a pensive, lovely face, her big green eyes touched by a hint of sadness, and there was a quiet warmth in her manner that made her seem approachable despite her beauty, and her fashionable hair and attire.
    "Lady Westhampton, I truly do like you," Miranda went on. "And I think more of your brother that he is reluctant to attach himself to any rich woman who comes along. However, like him, I have no desire for this marriage, and it seems quite useless for me to remain."
    "I would so like for him to meet you. Now that I have met you myself, I—I am even more in favor of his marrying you. He is a very charming man, really. You would be bound to like him. And he would be so sur—well, pleased to meet you."
    "Surprised, you started to say?" Miranda asked, a smile curving her mouth. "Why? Did he think I was an untutored rustic?"
    Color rose in the other woman's cheeks. It's... well...possible. You see, we didn't know." She sighed and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "I am sorry. I am making even more of a hash of it But I admit, I had not expected you to be...so fashionably dressed or to speak so, well, almost like an Englishwoman."
    "My stepmother is English," Miranda replied. "She always made certain we spoke correctly and behaved politely."
    "Oh, I see." Rachel colored even more. "Now I feel even more the fool. I—is your stepmother here? I don't remember meeting her." Rachel glanced around the room.
    "No. She wasn't feeling quite the thing this evening. She is often a trifle ill, I'm afraid."
    "I'm sorry." Rachel looked at her for a moment, then said, "Miss Upshaw, may I be quite frank with you, as you were with me a while ago?"
    "I prefer it."
    "I am afraid that we seem very different to you, this way we marry for alliances rather than for love. It is somewhat cold, I admit But that is the way it has long been among us—the aristocracy, I mean. We have a duty to our family, our name, the very house where we were born and all the people who work there, who live there. We are not always able to do as we choose. I, too, married as my parents wished."
    Miranda wondered curiously how that marriage had worked out. She had not met a Lord Westhampton here tonight
    As if seeing Miranda's thoughts on her face, Rachel added, "You have not met my husband. Lord Westhampton resides at our country estate most of the year." She hesitated, men went on, "Surely you can see that sometimes it is a necessity to marry well, not to marry as one desires. It seems that you would encounter the same sort of thing in the United States. Your father's business will need