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

not care? She was raised in a jungle, for God’s sake. Literally, in a jungle.”
    Warren reached to pour his host a bit more port. He feared the man would succumb to an apoplexy if he did not calm down. “So what is there to do?”
    “You can marry her,” he said gruffly. “I wish you would. You’ve no prospects or promises to anyone, have you?”
    “No,” he admitted.
    “You’re quite free to wed Lady Maitland—and such a fortuitous match. The king would approve, I’m sure.”
    Warren shifted uncomfortably. “You said he wished her wed to someone steady and respectable. I’m afraid that puts me out.”
    “You know what I mean. It must be someone of appropriate rank and wealth.”
    “It cannot be me,” he said, a bit more firmly. “I’m sorry, but I’m of no mind to wed.”
    “And I’m of no mind to see Josephine joined to a jackal like Stafford,” Baxter pleaded. “The man has waged a most impassioned campaign for her hand, even gone to the queen to make his case. You see how things are lining up for my unfortunate charge. If I was a single man I would marry her myself.”
    Warren believed he would. Their Majesties clearly didn’t know what Warren and Baxter knew, that the Earl of Stafford was an all-around scoundrel.
    “She’s not going to marry Stafford,” Warren said. “You can’t allow that to happen.”
    “How am I to stay the man’s hand when he wants her, and has the influence to take her? You’re an earl too,” Baxter persisted. “With more land, money, and friends than Stafford, and an ancestral seat in close proximity to hers. The king could not protest if Lady Maitland passed him over for you.”
    “I want to help, but I’m in no position to marry. Nor would I make a model husband, as you well know.”
    “You’d make a better husband than Stafford.”
    Warren stared down into his glass. Did he wish to play the hero? This was his moment to do so. Unfortunately, the heroic impulses were no longer there. “There must be someone else.”
    “There’s no one else,” Baxter said grimly. “She refuses to be courted, and has dressed in mourning long past the time she should. She says she wishes to wear black forever, though Queen Charlotte herself tried to coax her out of it. I believe she is trying to disappear.”
    “Disappear? Why?”
    “I don’t know. She doesn’t wish to be noticed, or admired. She’s been away from civilized people all nineteen years of her life, to the point where she’s terrified to go about in society. Of course, people note her lack of social graces. There are some who already cut her, title or no. I don’t know what to do. If Stafford ends up with her—”
    “No.” The word came out with rough emphasis, without conscious thought. But how was Warren to prevent it happening, without acquiring a leg-shackle himself?
    *** *** ***
     
    “There you are!” Minette ambushed him outside his room. He could see she was still bright and animated from dinner. She preceded him through his door and settled herself on the end of his bed.
    “Minette,” he sighed. “Aren’t you getting a bit old to hang about in a bachelor’s room?”
    “You’re not a bachelor,” she said, removing her gloves. “You’re my brother, and there’s talk that you won’t be a bachelor much longer. Is it true you’re sweet on Lady Maitland?”
    He collapsed into the bed pillows and gave her a look. “How do these rumors start?”
    “They start when you ask to speak to Lord Baxter privately. Everyone noticed you were in his study for ever so long a time. Did you ask his permission to court her?” Her eyes widened and she put her hands to her cheeks. “Oh my goodness, did you ask his permission to marry her?”
    “Minette, darling, it’s late.”
    “Lady Fairchild says you took away Lady Maitland’s fan at the ball so you might gaze into her eyes. She says you very much intended to kiss her, and her in mourning. Really, Warren.” But Minette’s eyes shone with