The Temporary Wife Read Online Free

still turned toward the door. Her head was still half turned toward him.
    "The marriage would be permanent," he said. "But our being together as a married couple would be temporary—for no longer than a few weeks at a guess. After that you would be free again apart from the small encumbrance of being Mrs. Earheart instead of Miss Duncan. And you would be very comfortably well-off for the rest of your life."
    She was frowning down at the carpet. But she was not hastening from the room. She was clearly tempted. It would be strange if she were not.
    "Will you not be seated again, Miss Duncan?" he asked.
    She sat, arranged her hands neatly in her lap again, and studied her knees once more. "I do not understand," she said.
    "It is really quite simple," he said. Her face was perhaps heart-shaped, he thought. But that description glamorized her too much. "I need a wife for a short period of time. It has crossed my mind that I might employ someone to act the part, but it would be far more—effective to have a real wife, one who will be bound to me for life."
    She licked her lips. "And after the short period of time is over?" she asked.
    "I would settle five thousand a year on you," he said, "in addition to providing you with a home and carriage and servants and covering your year-by-year household expenses."
    She sat very still and said nothing for a long while. She was thinking about it, he thought. About five thousand a year, about a home and a carriage of her own. About never again having to apply for a position as a governess.
    "How do I know that you speak the truth?" she asked at last.
    Good Lord! He raised his eyebrows and favored her with his frostiest stare while his right hand curled about the handle of his quizzing glass. But his indignation was wasted on her lowered eyelids. Her hands, he could see, were clasping one another rather tightly in her lap. He supposed that to someone like her there must seem to be the very real possibility that this was all a cruel joke.
    "There will, of course, be a written contract," he said. "I will have it here together with my man of business this afternoon, Miss Duncan—shall we say at three o'clock? You may, if you wish, spend some time alone with him and question him about my ability to fulfill my part of the agreement. Are you willing to accept my offer?"
    For a long time she did not answer him. Several times her mouth opened as if she would speak but she closed it again. Once she bit into her lower lip, once into the upper. She pulled carefully at each finger of her right glove as if preparing to take it off and then pulled it firmly on again with a tug at the wrist. She spoke at last.
    "Seven thousand," she said.
    "I beg your pardon?" He was not sure he had heard aright, though she had spoken plainly enough.
    "Seven thousand a year," she said more firmly. "In addition to the other things you mentioned."
    A quiet little mouse who nevertheless had her eye to the main chance. Well, he could hardly blame her.
    "We will of course settle upon six," he said, his eyes narrowing. "You accept my offer, then, Miss Duncan? I may cancel the other interviews I have scheduled to follow yours?"
    "Y-yes," she said. And then, more firmly, "Yes, sir."
    "Splendid." He got to his feet and reached out a hand for hers. "I will expect your return here promptly at three o'clock. We will marry tomorrow morning."
    She set her hand in his and got to her feet. Her eyelashes swept up again, and he found himself being regarded keenly by those steady blue eyes. He resisted the urge to take a step back. She must be looking at the bridge of his nose, he thought. She appeared to be gazing right into the center of both his eyes at once.
    "What happens," she asked, "when you meet the lady you really wish to marry and spend your life with?"
    He smiled at her rather frostily. "The woman does not exist," he said, "with whom I would consider sharing even one year of my life."
    She drew breath to speak again but closed