Season For Surrender (A Danby Family Novella Book 2) Read Online Free

wants to marry, yet we are both being forced to submit
to the detestable state. Charlotte believes we could settle on a marriage of
convenience.” She paused and studied him to make sure he still listened. He’d
turned his gaze to his glass and was sloshing the liquid around the rim. After
a moment, he glanced up, his eyes devoid of emotion.
    “Unless you can promise you won’t expect
any sort of emotional attachment from your husband, then I’m sorry to tell you
Charlotte is wrong. There can be no arrangement between us.”
    He thought he was so clever. Lillian
smiled and was rewarded by a brief look of astonishment from Lord Edgeworth.
She patted his arm to further unsettle him. “I’m glad to hear we can come to an
arrangement.”
    “What?” The man’s jaw dropped open.
    Somehow she managed to suppress her
laugher. “It’s simple. I have one week left to marry a titled gentleman or my
money and theatre go to Mr. Scotsby, the owner of The Royal Theatre, who was
and is our biggest competition. I’m sure my father did this to force my hand.
He always wanted me to marry a rich, decrepit, easily manipulated, childless,
titled lord who was on his deathbed, so we could get all the lord’s money when
he died. I refused to do it. Father never forgave me, and he never forgot to
punish me for being disobedient. This was his last and final punishment. He
thought I’d not marry in a month’s time, therefore Mr. Scotsby would get the
theatre and disperse me and my father’s small but loyal staff. Mr. Scotsby
won’t want us to stay, because he hated my father and therefore all of us.”
    Tension knotted her shoulders and her
head pounded. She rubbed her temples with a sigh. “I grew up in the theatre. It’s
my home. I have no family now that my father is gone and the people at the
theatre are like my family. They count on me. Many of them are old and will
never be offered another position. They could become homeless. I cannot let
them down.”
    “That’s awful.”
    His shocked tone swelled her heart with
hope. “If worse comes to worse I’ll marry the lord who offered for me.” She
couldn’t repress the small shudder that ran though her. Embarrassed to appear
weak, she glanced down and forced herself to continue. “I’d rather marry you.
Charlotte says you’re kind.”
    “Many lords are kind.”
    His emotionless tone didn’t surprise
her, given what Charlotte had confided. She ran a finger back and forth over
the dented, dull wood. “Yes, but I require a husband who will let me go my
separate way, as if we were never married. Someone who would only wed me in
order to avoid being forced by their family to align themselves with a woman
who’d likely desire love and affection. If you marry me, all I desire is your
name.”
    His strong grip on her arms startled her.
Fear tried to take hold, but she fought against it. She looked up as he slowly
turned her on the stool to face him.
    “What if I desire more from you?” The
question slid like silk from his lips.
    No doubt he meant to scare her. She’d
thought he might say such a thing. Staring, she forced herself to speak. “I’ll
submit to you in bed. But I don’t want a child. You’d have to vow to use
preventative measures.”
    He tightened his grip. Not painfully,
but she hated being clutched by any man. “Please let me go.” She tried to
unclench her teeth, but as long as he held her so, it was useless.
    He released her at once with a hiss of
breath and yanked his hands through his hair. “I take it you’ve been with other
men to know that there are ways to avoid conceiving a child.”
    She nodded, feeling very much dead
inside, like a puppet whose strings were being pulled. She’d hoped not to
reveal the nastiest parts of her life, but it appeared she had no choice. “My
father, as I said, was cruel. The theatre was bankrupt when I was eighteen. He
told me we were all going to be homeless unless I slept with a wealthy older
patron who wanted my