The Wrong Woman Read Online Free PDF

brother as a model.
    “Why come to town, brother?” Mischief played in Jack's eyes. “To visit your charming self, of course!” Miles raised a quizzical eyebrow at his brother.
    “Is that the truth?”
    “Of course!” Jack smiled. “Almost...”
    “Almost?” He stared at the boy until he cracked.
    “Oh, all right.” Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. “Mother sent me to town.”
    “She did?” This was something new. Mother generally disliked town. She especially disliked sending her mischievous children there for fear of what they might get up to. The instinct had deepened after Wesley's accident all those years ago. So to send Jack to town meant something big must have happened.
    “Yes, mother sent me here to stay with you.”
    “What on earth have you done?”
    “Nothing!” Jack protested his innocence. “Almost...”
    Miles chuckled. “Come on, Jack. Tell me the truth.”
    “Mother sent me to stay with you because, according to her, I was getting too friendly with the local girls.” Jack rolled his eyes.
    Miles laughed aloud now. “Really, Jack? Who is it this time?” Jack had been getting too friendly with the local girls for all of his life. They generally could not resist his good looks and genial humor. He was a handsome young man with light brown hair that was always falling over his forehead and bright blue eyes that reflected whatever shade of light he was standing under. Especially girls of a certain age saw Jack as an irresistible force.
    “Annabelle Cooper,” Jack grinned.
    “I'm not certain I remember an Annabelle Cooper.”
    “She's the blacksmith's youngest daughter.”
    “Good lord, Jack. How old is she? She was just a baby the last time I saw her.”
    “She's seventeen, Miles! I do have some standards.”
    Miles cocked his eyebrow again in disbelief. “You are twenty-five.”
    “Well, at least I have some standards of beauty, if not exactly age...”
    “So she is a beautiful creature?”
    “Exceptional.” Jack sighed. “Miles, you should see her. She has the most brilliantly blonde hair that falls all around her shoulders in ringlets and her eyes... oh, her eyes...”
    “Stop!” Miles held up his hand. “Stop before you go any further. I do not need to hear about your paragon of beauty. You are quite smitten with her, I see, and I cannot stand to hear you sigh over your new love. Clearly, mother does not approve.”
    “Of course not. She considers Annabelle to be too silly for me. And there is the question of her being a blacksmith's daughter. But if mother would only meet her...”
    Miles held his hand up again, quelling any further rhapsodies. “And so mother has sent you to town, thinking the dangers here to be less than the dangers of home. This is quite a reversal of her normal position. Could she not have warned me that you were coming?”
    “She could have. But then she thought you would have refused to take me.”
    “And she would have been correct.” Miles was genuinely happy to see Jack, despite the impromptu nature of the visit and the knowledge that Miles was expected to keep a careful eye on him.
    A thought occurred to Miles, his brother might actually be useful now that he was here.
    “Speaking of women, Jack, what are your plans for town?”
    “Nothing really. Why? Do you have a beautiful lady for me to meet?”
    “Yes and no. I would like you to meet her, but the beautiful one is mine.”
    “Miles!” Jack looked at his brother in delighted surprise. “Have you finally fallen in love? I never thought I'd see this day.”
    “You aren't seeing this day, Jack. Calm yourself. I am not in love, but I have chosen a lady who I think will make a very good wife. I am determined to win her hand. Mother has been nagging me again lately about my duty.”
    “Your duty? But you do not love her? How can you contemplate a marriage without love?” Jack read entirely too much poetry.
    “I can easily contemplate such a thought. Marriage does not require the