The Wedding Affair (Rebel Hearts series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

remind you of the promise you made last night at dinner.”
    The duke’s face lit up with uncharacteristic amusement as he met Felix’s gaze. “My youngest granddaughter has the whole family under her tiny thumb but has the patience of the ferocious kittens Sally keeps about the place. Barely sixteen and every young man in the district is singling Evelyn out for attention already.”
    “We met in Southampton a few years ago, and I remember thinking the same,” Felix confessed. The duke appeared startled by his observation. “She was with her brother inspecting the ships, and I was unable to avoid the introduction.”
    The duke grunted. “She is a curious creature at heart and utterly without guile.”
    “I thought so too. Very much like…” He broke off that thought and straightened his shoulders. He had been about to mention Sally. And he was not allowed to think of her anymore.
    The duke’s attention slid away to the butler. “You might tell Evelyn that the carriage will be made ready in good time and we can spend a pleasant hour in the village.”
    The butler nodded and led Felix to the door.
    “Until the dinner hour, Captain Hastings,” Rutherford called out. “You will be joining the family for all meals.”
    His calm faltered at that news. He would see Sally, be forced to meet her gaze, breathe the same air, perhaps even speak to her, while every Ford looked on. Would those that remembered their almost engagement believe the lie that he had meant to use her to advance his career or that he had loved her so much he had been willing to agree to anything her father had asked of him?
    Sally should have believed in him, and her furious accusations had fired his blood to prove he deserved his command. He had paid highly for his success. Since he had the opportunity, he would set the record straight about her father’s scheming. He smiled, imagining the pleasure of what he might do and say to her when they did meet. He intended the event to be very memorable indeed.
    He bowed deeply to the duke. “I look forward to it.”

Chapter Four

    H ow did one fall in love a second time and know it would last? It was a question Sally had asked herself many times in the past years and especially today. She still had no answer that comforted her.
    “You are so beautiful, sister,” Louisa enthused, fiddling with the delicate lace on the capped sleeve of the gown Sally would wear for her wedding at the end of the month.
    “Thank you, my dear,” Sally murmured, twisting a little before her mirror. The little touches made after the gown’s creation made her apparel so dear to her heart. Each relative, whether skilled or clumsy, had embroidered in white a small motif upon the garment. The abundance of anchors and other seafaring signals made her smile.
    Sally had been preparing for marriage all her life, as had her sister and three female cousins. At five and twenty, Sally and her family too had begun to despair her spinster state. But the fit of the gown was exquisite and her future husband was all she required in a gentleman. She would marry a very distinguished earl—and have the life she’d been born to live.
    She smoothed her gloved hands down the embroidered silk, admiring her reflection in the cheval mirror, and pondered her future as Lord Ellicott’s wife.
    Ellicott was possessed of great wit and conversation. They had a great many things in common—mutual friends, a love of London, and other amusements. He had a face to make many a debutant utterly flustered. She could not do better.
    Even her sweet old grandfather, the Duke of Rutherford, had agreed with her there was no better man in England when she had shared her hopes of a proposal from Ellicott with him. He had taken the news very seriously and then told her if the right man were to propose no expense would be spared for her wedding this time around. He would give her and her future husband free use of Torre Cottage, the little-used dower house she