To Tame A Countess (Properly Spanked Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

stock. The men exchanged pleasantries and impressions of the past winter. Warren hadn’t much to say for himself. He hadn’t exactly been dissipated, but he had spent a great many hours at his gentlemen’s club and favored brothels. Too many hours.
    At last Baxter sat forward and fixed him with a frank gaze. “Enough polite talk. You asked me here for a reason. What is amiss?”
    Warren took a deep breath. “I had hoped to have a word with you on the subject of your ward.”
    “Oh, thank God,” Baxter burst out. “Absolutely. The answer is yes.”
    “The answer to what?”
    Baxter’s glass stopped halfway to his lips. “Haven’t you come to ask permission to court her? I suppose it’s too much to hope you’ll marry her out of hand.”
    The conversation had taken an unwieldy turn. “Forgive me,” said Warren. “You’ve misunderstood. I haven’t come to ask for your blessing to court her. Or…marry her.” He could barely get out the dreaded word.
    “Then what have we to discuss?” asked Baxter in a curt tone. “If you’ve come to tell me she’s been rude, or unsocial, well, that is simply her way. She was not raised in society, you see. She showed up on some boat after a months-long journey from God knows where. The very day I received the letter from the solicitors, the woman was on my doorstep with a trunk of black clothing and a sun-faded bonnet. We had to scramble to take her in, being the only family she had.”
    “You didn’t know her parents?”
    “I wish I had. A fascinating chap, the late Baron Maitland, and the baroness too, following him all over Christendom with their only child. Unfortunately they had the poor luck to get killed during their travels. Murdered by robbers in some uncivilized corner of India.”
    “Goodness. How did your ward survive the attack?”
    “By some stroke of good fortune, Lady Maitland was not at home when it occurred.”
    Warren digested this rather alarming information. “It appears the lady has had a difficult life.”
    “Indeed she has. So if she does not seem the thing to you, not gracious or polished as you would like, then—”
    “Baxter.” His reproachful tone silenced the man. “Do you truly think I’ve come to complain?”
    The earl blinked at him a moment, then unruffled and took another drink. “Pardon me. I’m rather sensitive on the subject of Josephine. Er, Lady Maitland. My wife and I have come to care for her like a daughter. We’re very protective of her.”
    “Of course you are. I’m here because I don’t wish her life to become any more difficult than it already has been. She has this suitor—the Earl of Stafford. I know the man more than a little, not that I would call us friends. I want to tell you, with great and purposeful emphasis, that he is not an acceptable marriage candidate. He’s a drunk and gambler of the worst order. He’s heartless and self-absorbed, and notorious for his fortune-hunting exploits.”
    Baxter held up a hand. “Do you think I don’t understand what manner of man Stafford is? Believe me, I do.”
    “So you will not allow the match to proceed?”
    “I wish I could prevent it, but Josephine refuses to be reasonable and give any decent chap her attention. She insists she doesn’t want to marry at all.” The older man gave him a harried look. “Meanwhile, the king’s breathing down my neck. His Majesty has taken an interest in the lady’s well-being, and wants her joined to someone steady and respectable by summer. He is troubled by her current state of vulnerability.”
    The king was probably more troubled that this rich, titled young lady thumbed her nose at his orders to wed. Warren could see the strain around Baxter’s eyes and mouth, and felt true sympathy for the man.
    “Have you explained all this to your ward?” he asked quietly. “Have you explained what’s at stake?”
    “How am I to explain such things to a woman with so little knowledge of English ways? To a woman who does