Will She Be Mine Read Online Free

Will She Be Mine
Book: Will She Be Mine Read Online Free
Author: Jessica L. Jackson
Pages:
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explained,
puzzled by her persistent interest. “Is there anything amiss?”
    “You might say there is,” Miss Ann said. Miss Sadie snorted
elegantly and looked far down the path as if she could will them to be away
from this spot. However, in a hushed voice she revealed, “I’m afraid Mr.
Shufflebottom is quite fond of his…drink.”
    “I had no idea,” murmured Amelia.
    “If you’d like my advice, Miss Horton, and I’m not saying
I’m giving any, mind, then I’d find a different solicitor—one who doesn’t talk
so much when he is inebriated.”
    “Oh dear,” Amelia said weakly, putting out her hand to steady
herself as she swayed slightly. Thaddeus stepped forward quickly and held out
his arm. She took it gratefully while watching Miss Sadie’s eyebrows rise so
high that they disappeared beneath the smooth bands of her gray hair.
    “Ladies, we were just discussing the wisdom of Miss Horton
choosing a different man of business,” Thaddeus revealed. He looked keenly at
the two ape-leaders. “What do you think? I have never met the man but he sounds
to me like a bounder.”
    “He is, Mr. Milborough. He is.”
    “I don’t believe that a woman in Miss Horton’s delicate
situation should be required to endure the attentions of such a man,” Thaddeus
remarked, forcing them to confront the very thing they’d rather not have to
notice. Automatically their eyes turned to look at Amelia’s abdomen. “Do you
not agree?”
    “Indeed,” Miss Ann stated, nodding sharply. She elbowed her
older sister in the ribs.
    “Of course,” Miss Sadie squeaked, but rallied beneath her
sister’s glare. “No lady should have to endure the ill-mannered.”
    “You are both too kind,” Amelia said, nodding at each. She
felt they deserved some first-hand gossip as a reward. “Mr. Milborough has
offered to have his man of business recommend a replacement for Mr.
Shufflebottom.”
    “An excellent notion, sir,” Miss Ann commented. She relented
and let her sister drag her away. As a parting volley, she said, “We hope to
see you on Sunday, Miss Horton.”
    “I shall be there, Miss White,” Amelia called.
     
    Thaddeus watched Miss Horton’s face to see if he had angered
her with his revelations to the Misses White. She turned away from watching the
two spinsters walk with dignity down the path and then she smiled at him—a big
broad smile that showed her lovely white teeth and that reached her bright,
glittering eyes.
    “Thank you, Mr. Milborough,” she choked. “Thank you very,
very much. Now that they have spoken to me, others will as well.”
    “Do you…do you think you could call me Thaddeus?” he asked
wistfully, struck down by her gratitude. “When we are alone, that is?” His soul
stilled and waited for her reply, hardly crediting that within the space of one
day he had progressed from longing just to speak a word or two with her to the
point of asking her to use his Christian name.
    “Only if you will call me Amelia.”
    “It would be my honor, Amelia,” he told her. Tentatively,
Thaddeus reached out and took her hand. It fluttered in his large one like a
captured bird. He covered it and pressed it warmly. Overwhelmed, he gave a
husky chuckle, brought her hand to his lips and kissed it, and then returned it
to her before he did what he really wanted to do, which was to clasp her in his
arms and never let her go. “I must attend to that letter and send Angus off or
else he will not arrive before dark.”
     
    Amelia permitted him to escort her to her garden gate and he
left with a bounce in his purposeful step. She could barely breathe her heart
was beating so fast. She couldn’t stop grinning and a little laugh escaped now
and then.
    * * * * *
    At eleven o’clock the next morning, Angus drew up in front
of Rose Thorn Cottage in his master’s sporty Tilbury. He deposited the
gentleman whom Mr. Farley had recommended at the bottom of the walk and
indicated with his whip that the solicitor should
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