The Marquis Takes a Bride Read Online Free Page B

separate ways until such times as I feel it necessary to produce an heir. If you go on in this heated fashion, Perry, the world will begin to wonder about my… er… tastes. Play me no jealous tragedies, Perry.”
    “You mean… you… me… people would think…
you
think,” spluttered the enraged Perry. “Well, sirrah, if that is how you regard my devoted friendship… you may name your seconds!”
    “I have absolutely no intention of getting up at dawn so that you can put a bullet through me,” said the Marquis. “Take a deep breath and
think
, man… think how you sound.”
    “Jealous,” replied Perry gloomily, with his usual forthright honesty. “Sorry, Chemmy. I’m jealous of a girl. But, damn, what kind of a girl is it that wants you in name only? Answer me that!”
    “An enchanting, spoiled little minx,” said the Marquis, smiling reflectively.
    “And to add to the complications, Miss Bemyss is in love with her first cousin, Guy Chalmers.”
    “Not that loose screw,” gasped Perry. “It’s as well she can’t marry him. Ruining servant girls and rolling old women in the kennel is more in his line.”
    “Tell me more,” said the Marquis. “I do not know anything of Mr. Chalmers.”
    “He claims to be a Corinthian, which is simply an excuse for sloppy dress and the manners of the rabble,” said Perry roundly. “He tries to emulate everything that set does, only he does it all badly. He boxes badly, shoots worse, wounded a gamekeeper at Lord Belling’s shoot instead of hitting the bird he was supposed to, attends cock fights and bear baitings at Islington in the most shady company, claims to be up to every rig and row in town, claims to be a lady’s man and yet when he stayed at the Harrington’s a month ago, ’tis said he got Mrs. Harrington’s maid with child and then paid the girl to say that Mr. Harrington was the father, except that she confounded him by telling the truth… do you want to hear any more?”
    “No,” said the Marquis faintly. “I think I’ve heard enough.”
    “You say this marriage will not affect our friendship,” went on his friend relentlessly. “But what of Mrs. Waring’s ‘friendship?’”
    “Alice Waring knows my intentions towards her are, and always have been, strictly dishonorable,” said the Marquis. “She will soon find another protector.”
    “Not her!” cried Perry. “I’m sure she thought you would marry her, sometime or other. After all, you haven’t looked at another woman these past few years.”
    “You must be mistaken,” said the Marquis, jolted slightly from his customary good humor. “I am not a fool, Perry. Had I thought that Alice expected more from me than the payment of her rent and jewels, I would have terminated that connection long ago.”
    “You ain’t a fool,” said Perry slowly. “But sometimes you can’t see what’s under your nose.”
    “Enough!” said the Marquis. “You will be best man at my wedding, I hope?”
    “You mean you’re really going through with it?”
    “Oh, yes. I’m really going through with it.”
    Then I shall stand by you,” said Perry.
    “Thank you,” said the Marquis, and then surveyed his friend’s brooding face. “I would appreciate your loyalty to my bride, Perry,” he said quietly. “You are not to give her that piece of your mind you have so obviously reserved for her.”
    Perry flushed slightly. “Oh, well,” he said sulkily. “But life won’t be the same with Miss Jennie Bemyss around. Just you wait and see!”
    After Perry had taken his leave, the Marquis sat for a long time, deep in thought. He had not intended to honor the betrothal. Although he had been aware from a long time back that it existed, he had never taken it very seriously. His parents had firmly believed in arranged marriages and had been close friends of Jennie’s parents. Before their death, from one of the many typhoid epidemics which ravaged the English countryside, they had told the young Chemmy