The French Maid Read Online Free PDF Page B

be unearthed.
    Or so he’d thought. Ever since Miss Waverly’s challenge, he’d been volatile, prone to irrational bouts of fury. It made no sense. How could one stupid challenge churn up the cold ground inside him? And yet it had. Everything seemed to tax his temper.
    But tonight he must hold his anger in check, or he’d never succeed in his plans. So he fought his emotions back into the grave that felt shallower by the day.
    “Why not find someone more compliant to marry?” Lyons asked.
    Because her lack of compliance oddly attracted Gabe. Since he had to marry, he didn’t want some placid, toadying society chit. He wanted a wife with spirit. Who had more spirit than a woman brave enough to publicly challenge a man to a race?
    Besides, after everything he’d heard about Miss Waverly and the sad life she’d been leading, he couldn’t let that situation continue. Not that he could tell Lyons that; the duke wouldn’t understand that he was only doing what was right.
    He put on his usual grin. “You know me. I always like a challenge.”
    Looking unconvinced, Lyons sipped his wine. “So it wasn’t your grandmother’s idea for you to marry Roger’s sister?”
    “Gran didn’t specify whom we marry, just that we all do so—or none of us will inherit. And by the way, that’s not common knowledge, so I’d appreciate it if you kept it to yourself.”
    “I suppose Miss Waverly wouldn’t like hearing that she’s the key to your gaining your inheritance. But do you need the money that badly? Oliver seems to have the estate well in hand, Jarret convinced your grandmother to give him the brewery anyway, and Minerva now has a husband who can afford to give her whatever she wants. Surely you can rely on them to lend you money if you run short.”
    “It’s not that.” Given more time, he hoped to support himself on his own anyway. “I’m worried about Celia.”
    “Ah, yes. I forgot about her.”
    Gabe glanced over to where his sister was dancing with some foreigner twice her age and looking decidedly annoyed. She’d told Gabe only last week that she had no intention of marrying as long as Gabe stayed unmarried. We two should hold firm , she’d said, and Gran will have to give in. She’s got three of us paired off— that should satisfy her.
    Gabe gritted his teeth. Gran wouldn’t be satisfied until she had the entire family marching in step to her tune. And as long as he refused to marry, Celia could blame him for the fact that they were all disinherited.
    But then she would be the one to suffer. While he was putting his plans for financial independence into place, she would be shuffled from relation to relation. She said she didn’t need or want a man, but with no dowry to compensate for the weight of the family scandal on her marital prospects, she’d have no choice but to become a spinster.
    He refused to be responsible for that. If Celia still wouldn’t marry after Gabe got himself leg-shackled, at least she couldn’t blame him .
    “I don’t suppose you’re looking for a wife,” Gabe said hopefully.
    Lyons eyed him askance. “Your lovely sister? I’m not sure I want a wife who can shoot me dead at twenty paces.”
    Gabe smiled ruefully. “That seems to be the objection most men have to Celia.”
    And given Lyons’s family background, he would have more of an objection than most.
    Lyons glanced over at Miss Waverly, who was sashaying into a turn. “I suppose she’s pretty enough. A bit underendowed, though.”
    Underendowed? Hardly. But then, Gabe had never been attracted to women with bosoms like overstuffed chair cushions. Made them look unbalanced. He liked breasts he could take in his mouth without feeling smothered.
    He’d wager Miss Waverly had fine little breasts beneath that martial gown … and a shapely little derrière to match. In fact, she was damned near close to perfect. Taller than the average female, with a trim figure that bespoke hours of walking and riding.
    Then there