A Promise of More Read Online Free Page B

after Doogie Hennessey’s spinster sister. For all that, he felt his loins heat knowing she was naked under his blanket.
    She was passably pretty. Not a ravishing beauty, but then, very few women would look delectable after receiving a dunking in the Thames. Her hair clung in lumps to her head, the strands auburn-burgundy mixed with brown river sludge. Yet her eyes, the deep green of uncut emeralds, sparkled, probably with anger, and turned her plain features into something more. Her lips stretched taut with disapproval but their bow shape made him want to kiss her. To kiss away the bleakness on her face. That she did not wish to be here was obvious. Then why was she?
    He suddenly realized he had been staring at her for longer than was polite.
    “You need to get dressed,” he said more harshly than he intended. “You shouldn’t be here. Your reputation would be destroyed if it were known you were in this cabin, let alone in it with me, naked. I’ve done your family enough damage as it is.”
    She nodded. “True. But it’s that very reason that sees me take this desperate and abhorrent step.” She met his gaze. “Do you know what Doogie’s death has meant to our family?”
    He ran a hand through his hair. “I know the late Baron was to have married Penelope Gelher.”
    “And …”
    “And that the marriage would have settled your family’s financial problems.”
    “That marriage,” she corrected, “would have saved my mother, my sisters and brothers, and myself from the poorhouse.”
    The guilt rose to choke him once again. “I hadn’t realized it had come to that.”
    She looked away. “If not for the funds you arranged to send us while you were, shall we say, ‘rusticating’ in the Caribbean, my family would be there now. I used all of the money to clear my father’s and brother’s debts. But now there is no more.”
    He balked. “But I sent your family a small fortune.”
    She blushed to the tips of her petite ears. “What can I say? First my father and then my brother managed to take profligacy to a level Marie Antoinette would have applauded.”
    “Then might I suggest that you follow in your brother’s footsteps? Arrange an advantageous marriage.”
    She finally smiled and his insides froze as the reason for her presence struck his brain like a lightning bolt. Damn. No. No, no, no … He wanted to step away. He wanted to run. Sail back to the Caribbean.
    And then his worst nightmare put itself into words on those lips he’d recently thought so kissable, and he knew he’d be powerless to refuse her.
    “You’re correct, Lord Coldhurst. If I wish to save what remains of my family, my marriage to a wealthy man is now my only option. At my age, and with my prospects, I have no hope of securing such a marriage this side of never. Why do you think I’m here? Only desperation and the need to save my siblings would allow me to marry a man like you. A man responsible for the death of my brother.”

Chapter Two
    “You expect me to marry you?” Even as he said the words, he felt the proverbial noose tighten around his neck. Her family was in this position partly because of him. However, he refused to take all the blame. He’d apologized to Doogie several times and tried to beg off the duel.
    She shrugged. “Beggars cannot be choosers.”
    The inner beast raged. She’d just insulted him. A marquis, a man who had many debutantes in London trying to trap him in marriage. Little did this drowned rat know, he had no intention of marrying until he absolutely had to, until he was old enough not to fall prey to that insipid disease called love.
    “Did you think coming here, maneuvering yourself on board my ship, would trap me? I hate to disappoint but many women have tried to ensnare me and I’ve never been compelled to wed them.”
    She sank down on the bunk. “No. I was hoping your warped sense of honor would prick what little conscience you have, and you would see this is the only way to help