Blaze Wyndham Read Online Free Page B

business, though she would tell the troublesome chit. It was parents’ duty to arrange suitable matches for their children. Even despite their poverty, kind providence had this day provided them with more than enough good fortune for all of the girls. She led her eldest child to the privacy of the bedchamber she shared with her husband. Together they sat upon the edge of the great bed where Blaze and all her siblings had been conceived.
    Rosemary Morgan took her daughter’s face into her hands and stared at Blaze a long moment before releasing her. The girl was lovely, of that there was no doubt. “You are a very lucky girl,” she began, “ and you will make a memorable Countess of Langford if you are clever.”
    “ Why me? ” demanded Blaze. “How can you possibly pay him a dowry of any kind, let alone the kind of dowry it must take to marry an earl?”
    “He will have you without a dowry,” Lady Morgan replied.
    “ Why? ” The word was sharp. The tone suspicious.
    “Edmund Wyndham was married for eighteen years to a woman who, like our poor Queen Catherine, could not produce a child. At least the king has our Princess Mary, but the Earl of Langford’s only child died shortly after its birth. A birth which killed its mother. He is a wealthy man, Blaze, but he wants children. He already has an heir in the person of his nephew, but he wants his own son. You surely understand that.
    “Somewhere, he did not say where, he learned of our family. Of the fact that all my children are living. That they are strong and healthy. Even knowing that we could not afford a dowry, he came to us, and offered to take you for his wife without one. He believes that you can produce healthy children for him even as I have produced them for your father.”
    “So the great earl comes to Ashby to buy himself a blooded brood mare, does he? I will not marry him, Mother! I may be poor, but I have my pride. I should sooner be condemned to spinsterhood! How dare this man think that he can buy me? What arrogance!”
    “Nay, Blaze, he is not arrogant! He came as a supplicant, and he treated your father with elegance and dignity. His coming is like a miracle. It is your duty as a child of this family to accept gratefully the wonderful opportunity that has been offered you. Do you not see how fortunate you are?”
    “I do not see, Mama. Let this earl marry one of the others. Both Blythe and Bliss would kill for such an opportunity ,” Blaze said scornfully.
    “You are the eldest,” stressed her mother. “It is fitting that you be matched first. Besides, Blythe and Bliss are a full year younger than you are. The earl is a mature man, and you are the perfect age both to wed him and to begin bearing his children.”
    “No!” said Blaze stubbornly.
    Lady Morgan drew a deep breath to still her rising temper. The girl is impossible, she thought. I certainly named her well. “You are not the only one involved in this, Blaze,” she told her difficult daughter. “As part of your marriage settlement the earl has agreed to respectably dower your sisters so that they too may find good husbands.”
    “Then I am to be a sacrificial lamb!” Blaze burst out angrily.
    Lady Morgan’s temper could no longer be contained, and quickly spilled over. “Blaze,” she said, standing up and placing harsh hands upon her daughter’s slender shoulders, “you will go to the chapel at once! Pray to the Blessed Mother for her forgiveness. Your sin of selfishness, pride, and disobedience to parental will I will not tolerate! May Our Lady’s good, kind heart along with her prayers help cleanse you of these unruly thoughts. Hopefully you will realize how fortunate you are to have been chosen to wed Lord Wyndham. Mayhap you will even allow yourself to consider your younger sisters. To appreciate the fact that their futures rest, may God have mercy on us all, in your two selfish hands!”
    “Ohh, that is unfair of you, Mama! To put the responsibility of my