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

The Lady Seals Her Fate (The Langley Sisters #5)
Book: The Lady Seals Her Fate (The Langley Sisters #5) Read Online Free
Author: Wendy Vella
Tags: Regency Romance
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thought. “Your father needs a sound talking to,” Alex rasped. “Tell me you did not encourage the man?”
    She wouldn’t meet his eye, instead looking over his left shoulder.
    “Do you want this, Hannah?”
    “I should want it.” She faced him, and the expression in her eyes was the saddest he’d ever seen. It pierced his heart.
    “But you don’t?”
    Her sigh was small and sad. “No. What I want is to set up my own house and continue with my life the way it is. The problem with that is my father. I confronted him this evening and asked him to reduce my dowry, but he refused. He said that I should have many suitors to choose from, not just one or two, and this was his way of ensuring that. He said he wants me settled soon, in case his heart stops.”
    “He’s using his condition to coerce you, and while I question his methods,” Alex said, “I do not doubt his love for you.”
    “Yes, I know he loves me, and that moving him once he has set a course is impossible, but I had to try, and we had a terrible row. I-I told him he was using his ill-health to pressure me.”
    Alex wasn’t prepared for the tears that started to roll down Hannah’s cheeks. Fumbling into his pocket, he found a handkerchief and dropped to his knees before her and began to blot them.
    “Hannah, don’t cry, sweetheart.”
    “I’m sorry, Alex. I know he denies it but it feels as if my father is doing this to rid himself of me, even though I know he is doing it because he believes deep down I want to be married. H-he said every woman wants that.”
    “He loves you,” Alex said again, feeling helpless.
    “How can he love me and do this!” she shrieked, making him wince. “How can he sell me to a man so desperate for money he would overlook my flaws!”
    “I’m deaf,” Alex muttered, sticking a finger in his ear and rolling it around.
    “Is that all you can say?” she sobbed.
    “No, of course not,” he soothed. “And you are not flawed.”
    She sniffed. “I am, but thank you for saying otherwise.”
    “So you had an argument with Woolly, and came here to see me?” Alex was trying to work out what was going on. “There must be more to this than you needing to speak with someone, Hannah, because it is my belief you would go to Phoebe before me, and if it were a simple matter of comfort or needing to vent your feelings, you would do so at a more respectable hour.”
    “I may have said some things.” She was looking at his chin now. “Things I shouldn’t have in the heat of the moment.”
    “What things?”
    “I was provoked,” she said, her fingers going to his necktie and beginning to rearrange it. It was an unconscious gesture, and Alex doubted she even knew what she was doing, but it was the first time she had touched him so intimately. Her fingers made no contact with his skin but his body reacted to her touch anyway.
    “What did you say to your father, Hannah?” He grabbed her hands and brought them back to her lap, trapping them there. He was fairly sure he needed to concentrate on what she would say next, and he couldn’t with her touching him.
    “My father said he wanted me to accept one of the men who have proposed to me, and be done with it, and that he was partial to Lord McDonald, because he has a title.”
    “Surely he would not let you marry a man he knows nothing of, just for a title?”
    “He knows him in a business sense, and to his mind that is enough of a character recommendation.”
    “What did you say to him, Hannah, and what help can I give you?”
    “I said something I should not have, something that I fear implicates you, Alex.”
    “Me? What could I possibly have to do with this?”
    “I would ask you to hear me out first before you tell me how ridiculous my idea is.”
    “What have you done, Hannah?” Alex kept his eyes steady on her face.
    “I wasn’t thinking, and I said that my heart was already taken.”
    “No.” Alex shook his head. “Tell me you didn’t—”
    “My
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