The Marriage Ring Read Online Free Page A

Lynsted. I’m the Honorable Richard Lynsted, Lord Brandt’s son and heir. You and I have a few matters to discuss. Especially about your attempt to blackmail my father.”
    Now Grace understood why he had appeared familiar to her.
    So, this was the son.
    She smiled, certain of herself now. “I beg to differ with you, Mr. Lynsted. Is it blackmail to speak the truth?”

Chapter Three
    R ichard’s guard went up. Before his eyes Miss MacEachin transformed from a distraught, shaken creature who had struggled to fend off an attack to a calculating Scot.
    His father and uncle had always warned him about the Scots. They were ruthless and manipulative—two apt descriptions of the infamous Grace MacEachin.
    Well, she’d just met her match.
    “There is no truth in your charges,” he replied briskly. “And if you continue your threats, we shall be forced to take you before the magistrate.”
    “By all means, please take this before a magistrate,” she urged him. “In fact, that is what I’ve told your father and uncle I would do. I will be more than happy to have my day in court and speak my piece to the public and the papers. Although I’m surprised Lord Maven and Lord Brandt are so anxious to have me do so. What I have to say would tarnish their sterling reputations—”
    She broke off as if struck by a new thought. “They don’t know you are here, do they?” she said slowly, reasoning aloud. “You’ve come on your own…because, believe me, your father and uncle do not want what I have to say anywhere near the papers and gossip mongers.”
    She was right.
    Miss MacEachin had seen through his threat.
    This afternoon Richard had found his father uncharacteristically deep into his cups. He rarely drank and to see him in a drunken state in the middle of the day had been alarming.
    When he’d asked what was wrong, his father had confessed how Miss MacEachin was blackmailing him by accusing them of a crime they hadn’t committed. He and his brother had never embezzled money from anyone. Ever.
    Richard believed him. His father never lied to him. Besides, both he and uncle were the most morally righteous men Richard knew.
    He was also flattered that his father had, for once, confided in him. The twins were very close. Richard was the outsider. They rarely requested his advice or sought his counsel. He wanted very much to resolve this matter for his father. He longed to prove his loyalty.
    “Have they told you exactly what charges I make against them?” she wondered. “Did they tell you they ruined my father when they stole money from an elderly woman’s estate and then pinned the blame on him?”
    “My father and uncle would never do such a thing. Anyone knowing them would find it impossible to imagine.”
    “Truly?” She crossed to her dressing table and picked up a leather sheath. She slid her knife into it. “Her name was Dame Mary Ewing. She was very ill and her only son was serving our country far away. She trusted my father to handle her accounts. He had the bad wisdom to place them in the hands of your father and uncle. They stole it and accused him of the theft. He was sentenced on their testimony.”
    “Ah, sentenced in a court of law,” Richard agreed. “And by jury of his peers, I presume. I can sympathize with your desire to prove your father innocent, Miss MacEachin but falsely accusing other men is not the way to go, especially after he was convicted of the crime.”
    She didn’t like his rational logic. Her chin came up. “I know about you. I’ve done my best to learn everything about your family.”
    “And what do you know about me?” he challenged, intrigued in spite of himself by every facet of this woman.
    The truth was, Miss MacEachin was even more lovely up close—but what caught him by surprise was her sense of purpose, her intelligence. Her obvious education. She spoke well and moved with a natural grace one wouldn’t expect of the lower classes.
    “I know you are a snob.” She