Taming His Scandalous Countess Read Online Free Page A

him. He poured a drink and downed it in one gulp. He
gestured towards a glass. Snow nodded and poured his own drink.
    "There was no injury to the
child. She had been ill for some days. But Croucher..." Sir John covered
his face with one hand. "At any rate, I dealt with everything as well as I
could, invented some plausible tale for the authorities, and got Isabelle out
of that house as fast as I could. She was incoherent, claimed not to remember
anything that happened. I brought her home and she's been here ever
since." Sir John poured himself another drink and took a large sip.
    Snow frowned, turning over the
story in his mind. He'd known Charlie in the mad days before the war, before
his brother died and Snow came into the title. That was prior to Isabelle's
marriage, but it seemed that Charlie had not altered a whit. And Isabelle, tied
to that squanderer...
    He thought of her in the moonlight,
her flesh cool and sweet against his mouth, her hair tumbled around them as
they took their pleasure. He remembered her defiant glare at supper, her
despair as she sat in that cold, comfortless room.
    "I have a proposition for you,
Sir John."
    *
* * * *
    Her sister-in-law was furious.
Isabelle could almost see steam curling around her door from the hallway where
her brother and his wife argued. She couldn't hear John, but Cordelia's voice
was pitched like a teakettle about to boil over.
    "And now you reward her for
her lack of conduct? Am I to be humiliated in this fashion? That she, she of
all women, will take precedence over me! I cannot bear it, I will not!"
    What on earth were they talking
about?
    Finally, John's voice rose.
"Be silent, Cordelia. The decision does not rest with you. Now, please
excuse me while I speak to Isabelle." A moment of stunned silence, before
angry footsteps clattered away from the door.
    John entered, his face flushed.
"I beg your pardon. My wife is rather overwrought, I fear."
    "So I heard. What is
amiss?"
    Her brother took a turn about the
room, stopping in front of the bookshelf, where he stood, seemingly lost in
thought. She waited. Could John have discovered her moonlit swim or her tryst
with Lord Snow? No, he didn't seem upset, just at a loss somehow.
    "My dear, something quite
unexpected has occurred. I have received an offer for you."
    She must have misheard him.
"An offer? Of marriage?"
    "Of course, of marriage! What
other offer would I entertain for you?"
    Isabelle thought of the dissolute
Lord Snow. "I cannot imagine."
    "Lord Snow tells me he thinks
he can make you happy. You know this is all I have ever desired, for you to be
safe and happy." John fingered his neck cloth. "We discussed the, uh,
tragedy and it appears not to be a bar to the marriage. Could you consider
him?"
    Isabelle was silent while her
thoughts whirled. Marriage?
    "It would be an excellent
match for you. Lord Snow's reputation is not quite what one would wish, but you
would be a countess, with ample pin money, and your own home. His family is
received everywhere, influential in political and court circles. You would have
wealth and respectability. Perhaps, one day, children..."
    Isabelle held up her hand.
"Pray, no more, brother. I will consider all you have said."
    "May I tell Lord Snow you will
speak to him?"
    Isabelle opened her mouth to
refuse, but John looked so hopeful. To be fair, she knew she had been nothing
but a trial to her brother, whose chief god was respectability. So she nodded.
John paused by her chair, pressed her shoulder briefly, and left the room.
Isabelle scarcely had time to collect herself before Snow was there, knocking
softly on her door.
    He seemed oddly serious. Isabelle
had expected irony, even mockery, anything except sincerity. Snow waited for
her to stand before he took her hand, kissed it lightly and asked her, quite
simply, to marry him.
    Isabelle's heart beat faster. She
pulled her hand away. "I had not thought to ever marry again."
    "I see. Would you consider it
now? Your position in your