Sari Robins Read Online Free Page B

rose salon of Lord and Lady Bright, the people he hoped to call “family” soon.
    Miss Penelope Whilom, the focus of his aspirations, sat in a floral chair before the open window, an embroidery in her gentle hands. She looked up, and a shy smile lit her pretty face.
    The tightness that had been strangling Heath’s chest ever since seeing Tess eased a dash.
    Penelope is the right lady for me. Sweet, gentle, and mannerly .
    Unlike the flame-haired shrew he’d encountered this afternoon.
    Penelope was going to be a good partner to him. A gentle mother to his children, an asset to his career. He could only imagine the impact on his job prospects if he married the widow of a cheating snake…Oh, he’d heard the rumors that people blamed Tess for her husband’s descent into debauchery, but Heath didn’tbuy it. A man was his own master, especially one born to power and privilege.
    How could Tess have married that knave in the first instance? It was probably the fact that the man had been a baron. What good was respectability when there was such a premium attached to “Quality” even if the man had had no redeeming qualities to speak of? Having lived with nobility on and off for most of his life, Heath had had a taste of how differently he could be treated simply because of his father’s rank in a household. He also had had his share of noblemen warning him away from their daughters, as if he wasn’t good enough and never would be. There was always that trickle of doubt that they might be right.
    “Oh dear, what have I done?” a soft voice broke into his musings. “You’re looking at me as if you’re frightfully angry with me.”
    Shoving aside his thoughts and smoothing his features, Heath bowed. “Pray forgive me, my dear, I had my mind on…an incident at the orphanage.” Penelope didn’t need to know about Tess; she tended to discuss everything with her officious mother. Where was Lady Bright, anyway? She always chaperoned these twice-weekly visits. Was she finally appreciating the fact that Heath wasn’t about to debauch the lady he intended for his bride? He couldn’t imagine doing any such thing to Penelope; she was too kind, too sweet, an innocent in a world filled with worldly, cunning women who wanted a man only for what they could get from him.
    “Was it one of the children?” Her hazel eyes were tinged with worry.
    Stepping forward, he smiled and grasped her hand, a little boon to Lady Bright’s absence. “Nay, just some business matters. Nothing to worry over.”
    Her face relaxed. “Oh, good. I’m so pleased that Solicitor-General Dagwood asked you to serve with him on the board of trustees. It’s quite a feather in your cap.”
    “He’s been very good to me and has guided me well.” It had been Dagwood’s suggestion that Heath pursue Penelope as a bride. Her family was inordinately respectable, and since her three older sisters had all married nobility, her parents might be inclined to accept a well-favored commoner with good prospects. Everyone knew that Law Officer of the Crown was a steppingstone to still higher judicial or political preferment. Since Dagwood was well on his way, and Heath was modeling his own career in Dagwood’s style, the future looked promising, indeed.
    Dagwood couldn’t have been more encouraging toward Heath. He’d taken Heath under his wing and had even gone so far as to intercede on his behalf with Lord and Lady Bright. Penelope’s parents had been skeptical at first, but with Dagwood’s persuasion and Heath’s quiet dedication to proving himself, they seemed finally to be coming around. They’d claimed that only the death of Lady Bright’s mother barely six months ago was standing in the way of the announcement.
    Mindful of public perception, Heath understoodthe need to wait to go public with the news. It was practically official, but there was that tickle of doubt that Lady Bright liked to nurse within him. A well-placed if in a sentence, a look of