What A Gentleman Wants Read Online Free PDF

at the sound of his voice. David was watching her from the doorway, leaning on his crutch. In the two weeks he had been at the vicarage, they had become friends of a sort, and he had asked her to call him by name. Hannah had seen stranger friendships develop, when Stephen would help the town drunk or a servant cast out for being with child. While not quite as desperate as those souls, Hannah sensed a deep insecurity in David, one he took great pains to hide behind a brash, cocky front. Still, he was amusing and witty and very easy to talk to, and she found she genuinely liked him. “Why are you walking around? Dr. March said you should wait another fortnight at least before putting weight on your leg.”
    He hopped into the room and sat with a thump on the threadbare sofa. “Willy told me you’re moving house soon. Why?”
    Hannah resumed packing books. She couldn’t take all of them with her, and was trying to choose which to keep. “This is the vicarage. The new vicar will be arriving the week after next.”
    He was silent. “And where will you go?”
    “Back to my father’s.” Hannah weighed a well-loved novel against a volume of medicinal remedies, finally setting the novel aside with a twinge of sadness. She loved reading, and the novel was a gift from Stephen.
    “Why are you leaving that book?” He had it in his hands before Hannah could stop him. He flipped it open and saw the title page and Stephen’s note.
    “I can’t take everything.” She took the book back. “Did you need something? Has Willy not returned yet from town?”
    He shifted, propping his splinted leg on the sofa. “I was just seeking a little company. I found this in my room, and thought you might know how it came to be there.” He held out a bundle of braided rags. Hannah smiled.
    “I made it for Molly when she was getting her teeth. She chewed on it to help the pain. I expect she left it to comfort you because your leg is hurt.”
    “Ah.” He turned the floppy toy over in his hands. “That was very kind of her.”
    “She’s a very compassionate little girl,” said Hannah. “Though rather shy.” He laughed with her.
    “I think she must have learned it from her mother,” he said. “The compassion, that is, not the reserve. I haven’t properly thanked you for taking me in, nor apologized for my behavior.”
    “I understand. The pain must have been terrible.”
    He shrugged. “What will you do at your father’s house?”
    Hannah put a dog-eared periodical into her box. It was two years old, but Molly had overturned a bottle of ink and printed her little hands all over it Hannah expected she would keep it the rest of her life. “Admirable fortitude. Dr. March said the break was clean, but awkward. You don’t want to be left with a limp.”
    “It wouldn’t matter,” he muttered, staring into the fire with hooded eyes. “A limp, a missing limb, it would all be the same.” Hannah sensed that he wasn’t speaking to her, and tactfully concentrated on her packing. After a moment, he shook his head. “Why didn’t you answer my question?”
    She quirked a brow. “Are you accustomed to getting an answer to every question?”
    “I? No. But I would like to know the answer to that one.”
    Hannah sighed. “Well, the sad truth is, I’ve no idea. I have no other place to go. Jamie has four children of his own, Tom has three, and Luke and Willy still live with our father and his new wife. I don’t mind so much for myself, but Molly…” Her voice tailed off. “I didn’t want to raise my child under someone else’s roof,” she finished.
    The firelight threw flickering shadows around him, illuminating the planes of his face, his hair black as night. He wore a blue silk dressing robe over his shirt and trousers, and the rich fabric glowed like a jewel. “You could marry again,”‘ he said in a quiet voice.
    Hannah sighed again, but with a wry smile. “An excellent idea. I would cull my list of suitors, if I had