The Wedding of the Century & Other Stories Read Online Free PDF

I would like nothing better! We’ll have to be careful, of course—it wouldn’t do to foist a bastard on Thornborough.” He gave a wicked chuckle. “Though if the Gargoyle is unable to perform his duty, I’ll be happy to help him. I look more like an Aubrey than he does.”
    â€œIn other words, I make you a Cabinet minister, and my reward is adultery in the afternoon,” she said numbly. “No, thank you, Mr. Curzon.” Knowing that she would break down in tears if she stayed any longer, she headed for the door.
    He followed her and caught her shoulders. “Don’t look at it that way, darling. I promise you that this will turn out all right. We’ll be able to enjoy the very cream of love, with none of the dreariness of daily living that kills romance.”
    He turned her around so that she was facing him. He was as heart-stoppingly handsome as ever, his golden hair glowing in the gaslight, his blue eyes limpid with sincerity.
    She drew a shuddering breath. How could she have been such a fool?
    His voice richly confident, he said, “Trust me, darling.” Then he started to pull her toward him for another kiss.
    She slapped him with all her strength. “You’re right that this is a fortunate turn of events, because it’s given me a chance to see what a swine you are,” she said, her voice trembling. “I hope I never see you again, though I don’t suppose I’ll be so lucky. Goodbye, Mr. Curzon, and good riddance.”
    As he gaped with shock, the imprint of her hand reddening on his face, she spun on her heel and raced from the room. When she was outside the cottage, she took refuge in the shadowy lee of a huge hedge. There she fell to her knees, heart hammering and tears pouring down her face.
    Ever since her childhood, she had dreamed of finding a man who would love her forever. She had wanted a marriage different from the carefully concealed hostility between her parents, or the bored civility common between many other fashionable couples. In Paul, she thought she had found the man she was seeking.
    But she had been wrong, so wrong. Oh, he desired her body, and he lusted after her family’s money and influence, but that wasn’t love—she doubted that he knew what love was. Obviously she didn’t know much about it, either. Perhaps the love she craved had never been more than a romantic girl’s futile fantasy.
    Blindly she stumbled to her feet and began the slow walk to The Tides. After Paul’s betrayal, there was no reason to go anywhere else.
    Â 
    T HE NEXT MORNING, WHEN a maid delivered a half loaf of freshly baked bread and a crystal pitcher of water on a tray decorated with a fresh rosebud, Sunny summoned her mother and said that she would accept the Duke of Thornborough’s offer.

CHAPTER THREE
    J USTIN FOUND A MERICA a mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous. He liked the bustling energy of New York City and the cheerful directness of the average citizen. Yet in what was supposedly a nation of equals, he found people whose craven fawning over his title would have shamed a spaniel.
    Newport society, which considered itself the crème de la crème of America, apparently wanted to out-Anglo the English when it came to formality and elaborate rules. Augusta Vangelder was in her element as she escorted him to an endless series of social events. She invariably referred to him as her “dear duke.” He bore that stoically, along with all the other absurdities of the situation.
    But the habits of the natives were of only minor interest; what mattered was Sunny Vangelder. He had hoped that she would greet him with the same sweet, unaffected good nature that she had shown at Swindon, perhaps even with eagerness.
    Instead, she might have been a different person. The laughing girl had been replaced by a polished, brittle young woman who avoided speaking with him and never once met his gaze. Though he tried