The Fairy Tale Bride Read Online Free PDF

back. And still, he survived. But
he intended to cheat Fate of any satisfaction for leaving the
bastard duke alive. And he would do so without breaking the promise
he had made his father — no, the old duke. The newest duke would
soon be dead, replaced by a true-blooded heir. And Simon Watterly
would exist no more. He would take another name, another life — and
never would he take a wife.
    Of a sudden the wind whipped up, wailing past
the cottage. Simon shivered at the sound, remembering how he had
stood motionless, surrounded by murderous thugees, daring Fate to
take him then and there.
    The thunder of gunfire and the screams of the
dying men had sounded very much like the laughter of the gods, and
he had not died.
    And now he was here, in a one-room cottage
with Miranda only a few feet away. She had been in his arms, had
touched his cheek with her gentle hand. He wanted to believe that
she was truthful when she assured him she was not trying to
compromise him into marriage. He had thought her entirely honest
five years ago.
    But of course, that was before he had learned
that Fate was not done playing with him. Since he had been home,
acting as the Duke of Kerstone until he could install a
true-blooded heir, at least a dozen or so young "innocents" had
thrown themselves at his head in some most ingenious schemes, no
doubt configured by their ambitious families. He had found them in
his bed, in his carriage, half-dressed in the garden, and
fully-nude in the library.
    He had extracted himself from all the
situations cleanly — even the miss in his bed. She had been the
most innocent-looking of all of them, and he'd paid off her papa
before she had even finished dressing.
    Was Miranda like them? Unable to resist, he
glanced over his shoulder. If he had any doubt at all that this
innocent-seeming young woman was wearing no stays, the sight of her
cheerfully slicing fruit and cheese in the lamplight in her damp
dress answered definitively that she was not.
    With a hope of dimming the smile on her face
that drew the tension in his belly to a sharp point, he said, "Your
brother would not approve your being alone with me."
    Her answer was calm, but her smile actually
widened. "Valentine does sometimes worry overmuch about my
judgment, but I assure you it is sound enough to know that I am
safe with you."
    He checked his impulse to pivot and face her,
instead turning his gaze back to the flames. "If you believe so,
you are a fool."
    There was a momentary silence, and he
pictured her imagining herself seduced and abandoned, until she
dispelled that notion, her voice ripe with amusement. "I felt
certain that I could trust a man who risked his life to pull one of
the men in his command away from a suttee fire in which he had been
thrown — or who saved a wounded man from death at the hands of
thugees, using his own body as a shield." Her voice softened, all
traces of amusement gone. "Or one who dared scandal by helping a
foolish young lady escape misfortune with her reputation intact.
"
    Simon was taken aback. How on earth had this
sheltered miss heard such tales, true as they were? Valentine's
judgment must be as sorely lacking as his sister's. "A man can be
brave in battle and craven in —" he searched for a delicate way to
state his meaning and then decided that Miss Fenster could do well
with a little shock — "lust."
    "Not you, Your Grace," she demurred, forcing
him to turn away from the dancing flames to stare at her. Was the
girl completely daft or supremely crafty?
    Was it possible she didn't understand what
could happen to her, even after Grimthorpe's assault? "Let me make
it quite clear to you that, even if it were public knowledge about
our ill-spent evening, I could walk away from you with only a blot
that would quickly fade. Your reputation, however, would be ruined
forever."
    "You needn't tell me." Her hands stilled for
a moment. The tight line of her lips softened suddenly as she
smiled with a shyness that was absurd