The Earl's Inconvenient Wife (Regency Collection Book 1) Read Online Free

beginning to give up hope he would.  But perhaps he’d pay her family a visit within the next few days.  Then if things went well and he fancied her, she wouldn’t need to attend another ball, at least not to attract a husband.  She had no idea how stressful it’d be to go from one gentleman to another in that room and know each one was sizing her up and trying to decide if she was the right one to give him an heir.
    “You shouldn’t be out here by yourself.”
    Opening her eyes, she turned her attention to one of the few gentlemen she hadn’t already met tonight.  He had coarse dark hair and light blue eyes, broad shoulders that fit his dark clothes rather well, and—her eyes went back up—a surprisingly serious expression on his face.  “I can’t go back in there right now.”
    “You can’t stay out here unless you have a chaperone.  Someone’s likely to think you’re doing something inappropriate.”
    Her cheeks warmed.  “I assure you I’m not.”
    “I can see that.”
    “Then can’t someone else see it if they find me out here?”
    His eyebrows rose in surprise.  “Not all gentlemen who come out here would warn you to go back inside.”
    “I don’t understand what you’re implying.”
    “This is not the best place for an unaccompanied lady to be,” he said.  “Some gentlemen wouldn’t mind enticing you to the gardens.”
    She glanced at the gardens which was a good distance from them.  “I see no reason to go there when it’s dark.  I wouldn’t be able to see anything of interest.”
    A slight grin crossed his lips before he grew solemn again.  “P erhaps not, but I’m sure the gentleman would.”
    She rolled her eyes a nd rested her head on the column.  The gentleman spoke in riddles, and she had yet to clear her head.  “I can’t go back inside just yet.”
    He stepped toward her.  “I’m not trying to be rude.  I’m trying to protect you from scandal.  You are aware of what a scandal is , aren’t you?”
    She gasped and snapped her head back in his direction, the sudden action causing her surroundings to spin aro und her.  She gripped the column for support.  “I’m not an imbecile.  Of course, I know what a scandal is, but all I’m doing is resting against a column on the veranda.  I’m not far from the ballroom.  If someone tries to haul me off to the gardens, I’ll dart for the doors.”
    “You underestimate how quick a gentleman can be.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him.  “Are you such a gentleman?  Should I be worried about you?”
    He balked.   “Good heavens, no.  I wouldn’t dream of doing anything to tarnish a lady’s reputation.  Let me escort you back inside, and I’ll talk to your chaperone about coming out here with you.”
    He reached for her but she dodged him.  She wavered a bit but held onto the column.  “I’ll take myself back in when I’m ready.” Really!  The nerve of him to think she couldn’t do such a simple thing herself.  All she’d wanted was a few minutes of quiet and fresh air to regroup, and she ended up being harassed.
    “You don’t look good,” he said, concern finding its way into h is voice.  “You need to go inside.”
    His insistence that she couldn’t take care of herself was irritating her to no end.  Just who did he think he was to boss her around?  When he reached for her again, she stepped away from him and went to the other side of the column.
    “I don’t believe this,” he muttered and took another step toward her.  “You look like you’re going to faint.  I’m not leaving you out here unsupervised.”
    She managed to dodge him once more, but in doing so, the world tilted around her and she lost her hold on the column.  She let out a scream of surprise as she lost her footing on the edge of the veranda and fell onto the grass.  For a moment, she didn’t understand what just happened, but then he was kneeling next to her and trying to pull her up.
    “I can get up without