Charlotte Louise Dolan Read Online Free Page A

chivalry.
    Darius rose when Munke admitted the visitor. The family resemblance was strong—the same blond hair, the same classical good looks as Miss Goldsborough—but the brother was considerably younger than Darius had expected. An inch or two taller than his own height, the boy was just starting to broaden out and lose the gangling look of youth. Automatically evaluating his visitor’s potential, Darius decided the lad had the makings of a fine soldier—physically, that is to say. As far as what courage and fortitude the boy might have, that remained to be seen.
    After stiffly introducing himself, Goldsborough came right to the point. “I have come to request that you make restitution for the injury you have caused my sister.”
    “How much?” Darius reached for his wallet.
    “I am not speaking of money. I am speaking of an eye for an eye—”
    “And a tooth for a tooth,” Darius finished the saying. “Very well.” He picked up his sword from the table by his chair and held it out to the young man. “Hack away. My cheek is yours to carve up as you will.”
    The boy took a step backward, not touching the preferred sword. “Sir, you mock me.”
    “That was not my intention. Perhaps you could express your wishes a bit more clearly.”
    “I want you to give my sister what she has lost through your irresponsible actions.”
    “And what might that be?” he asked, finding the interview already becoming tedious.
    “A husband.”
    Caught totally off guard, Darius actually dropped his mouth open. Immediately he snapped it shut, not bothering to hide his indignation. “Surely you jest. If that fop she calls a fiancé has broken their engagement, it cannot be laid at my door.”
    “Deny it as you will, it is your responsibility she cried off,” the boy retorted.
    “Ah-hah! So she cried off, did she? Then it was obviously done of her own volition. The so-honorable fiancé was apparently not unwilling, then, to proceed with the marriage?”
    “Beth could not be expected to marry a man who is unable to look at her face without shuddering.” Nicholas’ youth betrayed him, and he was unable to keep the hurt tone from his voice.
    So that was the way of it, Darius thought. It would appear he should have accepted the fiancé’s challenge and used the opportunity to rid society of such a sniveling coward.
    “I’m sorry,” he replied, more gently this time. “I’m afraid that, even were I to agree, I would not make your sister a good husband. In any case, I have no intention of ever marrying. There is nothing to stop you from applying to Charles Neuce, however. Although I cannot speak for him, he may not be as averse to marriage as I am, and since he was the other driver, he must share the blame for the accident.”
    Nicholas’s disappointment was writ plain on his face. “If you had a sister, sir, you would realize how preposterous that suggestion is. Never would I allow my sister even to consider tying herself to such a ramshackle fellow as that.”
    The captain, in fact, had two sisters, compared with whom Charles was a model of respectability and rectitude. There was no way to prove the paternity of any of Darius’s assorted nieces and nephews, but on the other hand, it was doubtful that his two brothers-in-law cared one way or another, intent as they were on the pursuit of their own mistresses, both married and unmarried.
    Having had his eyes opened at an early age to the duplicity of the females of the species, St. John had determined to forgo marriage in favor of a military career, nor had this young man yet said anything to cause him to change that decision.
    “But tell me, why is your sister so determined to be wed? Your father left her comfortably well off, or so she informed me. What need has she of a husband?”
    “She desires children. She has always looked forward to having a large family,”
    There was a slight pause as Darius considered this explanation. “Be that as it may, I do not feel