Wedding Night Revenge Read Online Free PDF Page B

to Pamela when they were sitting out a set at the Winthrops' midsummer ball last year.

    In fact, bearing in mind how her eldest daughter had contrived to put Pamela firmly in her place, and bring about a proper introduction between June and that woman's son on the very same occasion, it was a miracle that her schemes to matchmake the pair had been such an outstanding success. June and William were deeply in love, there would be a grand wedding and nothing must spoil their joyous occasion. Gloria was as determined on that score as was her eldest daughter.
    Gloria slid a glance at Rachel; it skipped to Edgar. Father and daughter had retreated, still bristling, to opposite sides of the room, ostentatiously far apart. Yet in many ways they were so close. Both stubborn, protective of people they cared about and apt to act rashly or on impulse. Yet they were also at times ready with very sensible opinions. It was just a shame that they rarely accepted such common-sense advice themselves when it was offered.
    A little smile touched Gloria's lips as she watched her husband making an effort to appear calm and convivial as he chatted to William about the new bay hunter he had that week purchased. For all William's upright, amenable nature, she knew he would never come close to replacing the marvellous son who had slipped so suddenly through Edgar's acquisitive fingers six years ago. What worried Gloria was that her husband had never fully accepted that particular relationship was lost to him...And he must...
    Her grey eyes traversed to Rachel. In profile she looked quite breathtakingly lovely as she rested her golden head on the casement frame and gazed off over the cloud-darkling lawns. In such a demure, alluring pose it was hard to conceive she couldn't have any man she set her heart on. But, to Gloria's infinite regret, she couldn't now bring to mind any gentleman who seemed to pay serious attentions towards her eldest daughter. For a year or more, since Rachel turned twenty-four, she had accepted that her first-born was likely to remain a spinster, not only because gentlemen were wary of her reputation but because she herself would opt to keep that status.
    It was unfair; other women had daughters with squints and buck teeth who had married well. She had a girl blessed with the serene, classical beauty that painters and poets swooned over and strove to capture with their craft, yet still she remained unloved by any but her family. Who would believe that beneath those honed, fragile bones lay a steely will, or that her cool, fair loots concealed a bold and fiery temperament. And then there was Isabel...dear, sweet Isabel, lost to her so young before she had had a chance of making a good match...Gloria felt her eyes fill with tears. She mustn't think of Isabel...not now. She had another daughter to concentrate on. June was just as worthy of her attention as were Rachel and Sylvie, even though, bless her, she never seemed to demand or require it as did the others...
    Approaching the open window where Rachel and Sylvie stood together, Gloria automatically tidied the curtains billowing in a balmy breeze. Sylvie suddenly leaned out over the sill again, snapped off a twig of lilac and, separating the cluster of blooms, presented one to her sister and the other to her mama. Then, careless of her clothes or modesty, she hoisted herself in a white flash of ruffled drawers and petticoats right over the ledge and slipped away into the garden.
    'Oh, that girl!' Gloria muttered ruefully. 'Truth to tell, there are days when I wonder if she is a girl at all. She's the greatest tomboy of the four of you and I thought you were never to be beaten on that score. Do you remember your tree-house and that collection of crawlies you kept?' Gloria gave a delicate shudder. 'You had quite a menagerie, as I recall: insects, amphibians from the pond, and that grass snake. Poor Isabel was frightened witless by that enormous furry caterpillar you put in her