With His Ring (Brides of Bath Book 2) Read Online Free

so forceful as to forbid you anything."
    "She has merely fooled you," George said.
"My wife commands most sweetly."
    "And George jumps happily through her
hoops," Blanks declared.
    George laughed. "You wait, my friend. Before
the year is out I expect to find you shackled."
    Diana's lovely face went solemn.
"Shackled?"
    Glee watched as George set his hand on his
wife's, stroking it tenderly. "For Blanks, it's shackled. For me,
it's heaven."
    How Glee envied the love that bound her
brother and Diana as eternally as the tide. She was almost
embarrassed as Diana pursed her elegant lips and sent a kiss across
the table at her beloved.
    It was apparently more than Blanks could
stand. "Who's bid?" he asked.
    "I think it's yours, pet," George said to
Glee. He never called his wife pet . She was always my
love .
    They played in relative silence, with Glee
and Blanks winning the next rubber before the foursome retired for
the night.
    * * *
    Sleep eluded Gregory. The solution to his
dilemma had seemed so obvious to everyone. To Willowby. To Glee.
And to George. Only Gregory knew how useless it was for him to
contemplate marriage. He had long ago vowed to never marry. All of
his sexual intimacies had been conducted with experienced women who
knew how to prevent pregnancy. He had no desire to impregnate a
woman he valued and loved to lose her in childbed as he had lost
his mother.
    He had grown to hate his father for his
mother's death and forcing an uncaring step-mother on him. Aurora
had always despised Gregory for usurping her precious Jonathan from
their father's vast fortune.
    And now she had won. The fortune would be
Jonathan's.
    * * *
    Sleep was the last thing Glee wanted. This
all-encompassing love she felt for Blanks demanded contemplation.
She could almost curse him for disrupting her heretofore placid
existence, yet the sweet rapture of her love was intoxicating. It
seemed her entire nineteen years had been but a prelude for this. This . This brink of fulfillment. This delicious arousal.
This yearning to intertwine her life with his.
    If only she knew more about him. Then she
could commence on her plan to snag his heart. But he guarded his
feelings as securely as a vault. That smile she had come to love so
dearly was but a mask. Even his extravagant pranks and excessive
living must conceal a man of deep feeling. If only she could
penetrate the armor he had erected around his heart.
    She bolted upright in her bed. How foolish
she had been to expect to win his love! Never would that be freely
given. No, she must not even try. He obviously feared such a
commitment. What he needed now was a wife, not a love. For he was
not ready for love. She must learn to take her happiness in feeble
increments. First, she would have to convince him to marry her.
    A marriage in name only.
    Like a general with a battle plan, she would
conquer his heart later.
    One thing seemed clear. He had no desire to
marry, even if it meant forfeiting his fortune. What was there
about the state of marriage that could repulse him so?
     

Chapter 3

    Only Blanks was in the breakfast parlor when
Glee came down the following morning. George had persisted in
coddling Diana since her confinement and insisted she take
breakfast in bed. It was just as well. Glee intended to hoard
Blank's company. Her heart did an odd flip when she stole a glance
at him sitting at the walnut table, stirring his tea unconsciously
while gazing out the window. Smoky half-moons rested under his
eyes, and he seemed not at all the Blanks he carefully revealed to
the world.
    But when he heard her footfall and turned to
face her with his dazzling smile, she felt the deception of his
persona. "Good morning," she said, shooting him a smile she did not
feel and pouring hot coffee from a sterling urn on the sideboard.
He sprang to his feet as she walked toward the table, and he began
to pull out the chair on his immediate left.
    Yesterday's voluptuous clouds had reneged on
their promises of rain,