Realm 07 - A Touch of Honor Read Online Free

so kind of me,” she wept.
    John fisted his hands so as not to reach for her. “You are the youngest sister in marriage of two of my dearest companions,” he assured.
    She dabbed at her eyes, and John knew misery. He had been furious on the day he had assisted Marcus Wellston and Lucifer Hill with the rescue of the Aldridge twins. Furious at what all Miss Satiné had suffered. The moment he had pulled the girl over the lip of the glass cone and into his embrace, he had wanted her. Memories of that one brief moment had nourished his hopes for well over a year. Now, they were dashed. “I thought,” she said with glistening eyes, “we knew more familiarity than my being the sister to both a duchess and a countess.”
    A heartbeat of silence elapsed. He read what he thought were her expectations in the painfully acute expression, which crossed her countenance. John felt a probing shudder run along his spine. Although the words had come easily to his lips, as quickly as he had spoken them, he knew he had made an error. “You must know, Miss Aldridge, I hold you with the highest esteem.”
    “If only…” She sighed heavily. “It seems I spend so much of my time of late with if only .” She looked so very young. Her complexion creamy. Her lips so kissable. The nearness of her swarmed John’s reason.
    John gave a small shake of his head. “I must see to your immediate marriage.” The implication that Miss Satiné might have chosen him if he had not postponed his return to Vienna tore his heart to shreds.
    “I fear, Sir, it is too late. The gentleman has departed the country,” she said in a voice barely more than a whisper. Her green eyes shone with the tears she readily shed.
    John purposely shook off her protestations. “My connections are extensive, Miss Aldridge. All I require is a name.”
    Tears streamed down Miss Satiné's cheeks. “The gentleman has a wife,” she confessed.
    Air rushed from his lungs while John murmured a curse he would prefer to shout to the Heavens. “You knew…you knew of the man’s wife?” he stammered.
    A sadness, which matched his own, crossed Miss Satiné's countenance. “Not until afterwards.”
    John’s blood ran cold, while dread raced through his veins. The full magnitude of her situation slammed against his heart. Miss Satiné had turned so pale he thought she might faint. A laden silence stretched between them. Finally, he reached for her hand. Clearing his throat, he said, “I realize I am not the man you wished to call ‘husband,’ but I would be blessed among men if you would accept my hand in marriage.” From behind him, he heard Miss Neville gasp, but John held Miss Aldridge’s gaze. The moment was not as he had imagined it, and John wondered if the differences spelled doom.
    “I cannot permit you to sacrifice…” Miss Satiné began.
    However, he interrupted her. “It would be no sacrifice. I am the only one of my associates, who has not taken a wife, and I have thought of us often,” he admitted. “We can marry quickly. I have papers to sail to England at week’s end. I can book additional passage…”
    “What of the boy?” she asked. “Am I to leave the child behind?”
    John frowned deeply. “I would not… It is not in my nature to abandoned a child… I had not thought…”
    Miss Satiné slid her small hand from his grasp. “I…I understand. I release you, Baron, from your offer. It was kind of you to stand in my defense.”
    John was on his feet and pacing the small opening between her bed and the windows. “I do not wish to be released,” he declared. “But to accept another’s child as the future baron would be a betrayal of all my father held most holy. I have a responsibility to the title.”
    “The Earl of Berwick always said you were of your father’s nature,” she affirmed with a bit of petulance.
    John jammed his fingers into his hair. “That particular fact may be so, but in this matter I cannot relent.”
    “Then we are at