The Lady Seals Her Fate (The Langley Sisters #5) Read Online Free Page A

never really accepted her. Seeing the small window of vulnerability in the woman he’d believed indomitable moved him more than it should.
    “Well, it bloody bothers me.”
    “Yes, yes, that’s very kind of you, but we stray from the point. Alex, please pay attention,” Hannah said as if they were discussing satin ribbon, instead of her reputation.
    “I don’t know what the point is yet, Hannah.”
    She looked down, clenching her slender fingers briefly before speaking. He followed the sweep of her lashes as she blinked and realized that whatever was bothering her was serious, very serious, and he wondered why he, of all the people she knew, was the one she had come to for help at such an hour.
    Hannah had friends, his sister-in-law was one, and all would help her if she turned up on their doorsteps at two in morning, so why had she chosen him?
    “My father wants me married as quickly as possible as he fears for his daughters’ futures, should his heart stop beating. There is also the matter of grandchildren which he informed me he wishes to meet while he is still healthy enough to enjoy them.”
    Alex could see that speaking about her father’s heart was upsetting, but she merely sniffed and continued.
    “This evening no fewer than three men expressed their interest in acquiring me as their wife.”
    “Three?” Alex knew he looked stunned, but before tonight, no one had offered for her. “I did not mean to insult you—”
    “No.” Hannah shook her head. “You are right in what you say. I have after all been in society many years and have propped up walls most evenings unless you, your brothers, or Will ask me to dance.”
    “You are a beautiful woman, Hannah; any man would be proud to have you as his wife,” Alex felt compelled to add. He knew her family circumstance had put men off; fools, all of them.
    “There is no need for pretty words between us,” she dismissed him. “We have never spoken that way and need not start now.”
    “I meant every word,” Alex said, angry at her dismissal. “Just because I do not say them often does not mean they aren’t true.”
    Hannah waved his words away with elegant flicks of her wrists. “Stop now before you swallow the rest of your foot, Alex.”
    “You do not believe you are beautiful?” Because she was, right down to her bones. Her face was delicate and her eyes alive with spirit. He had never seen her hair down, but it was the color of midnight, silken and thick and he knew it would fall to her waist when released. Her body was slender and her every movement graceful. He’d had plenty of sensual dreams about this woman and woken aroused to the point of pain.
    “Stop!” she snapped. “I did not come here to discuss my beauty or lack thereof. Now please pay attention.”
    “Speak then,” Alex snarled back. It was always like this between them; no matter how he tried to remain controlled, she pushed and pushed until he lost it. He was like that with no one else. He was one of society’s favorite bachelors, and could charm anyone at fifty paces, but not this woman. Hannah Wooller made him feel as if he had hair lining his undergarments.
    “I confronted my father when we arrived home tonight, after Lord McDonald asked for my hand. I tried to reason with him in a calm voice, but unfortunately the exchange became heated.”
    “McDonald asked for your hand after you danced? In the ballroom? How bloody dare he! Have you and he even shared a conversation?” Alex battled his anger at her words.
    “He is Scottish, and had no time to court me or play the pretty, or so he told me. It seems he is more than happy to overlook my temperament, and according to my father, with whom I broached the subject when we returned home, Lord McDonald is a man of a practical nature and a great deal of sense, whom he would have no problem with me marrying.”
    “He is happy for you to move to Scotland?” Alex would not see her if that happened, and that was an unsettling