Never Fall for Your Fiancee
- Автор: Heath Virginia
- Год: 2021
- Язык: английский
- Год: St. Martin's Publishing Group
- Жанр: Исторические любовные романы
Электронная книга - «Never Fall for Your Fiancee». Краткое содержание книги:
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Virginia Heath's fun characters and situations will have you laughing out loud! Don't miss this wonderful read! - Sabrina Jeffries, *New York Times* bestselling author**
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The first in a new historical rom-com series, a handsome earl hires a fake fiancée to keep his matchmaking mother at bay, but hilarity ensues when love threatens to complicate everything.**
“I think we galloped past far about an hour ago.” Diana stood and tossed her napkin on the table. “I suppose I’d better go and support Minerva. She mollycoddles Vee far too much otherwise.” She stomped out, leaving Hugh with his evil best friend and the contrite, blinking actress.
“Well, this is all going swimmingly.” Giles toasted Hugh with his tankard again. “I predicted a total shambles and now my prediction has come true.”
“Enough.”
“But at least I am right and I do so love to be right.”
“Should I go and apologize, do you think?” The actress was wringing her hands.
“Well, it certainly couldn’t hurt.” His friend patted Lucretia’s arm. “Although if I might be so bold, you might consider allowing Lucretia to do the apologizing and retire Mrs. Landridge for the rest of the day.”
She nodded. “If you think that’s best.”
“I do. And on your way out, can you ask the maid to bring in some more of that cake? I’m still a little peckish.” Giles waited for her to leave the room, then shuffled over a few chairs to sit in the one dead opposite. “I hate to labor my point, old boy, but you really do need to send Vee home. She’s going to ruin everything before the best of the fun has started.”
“I can’t. There is nobody there to send her to.”
“Then give her a maid, or hire the chit a governess if it makes you feel better, and dispatch her on a little sojourn to the coast for the duration. I’m sure she’ll be delighted. She’s in over her head, Hugh.”
“I’ll talk to Minerva.”
“Yes. That’s the answer. Ask Minerva’s opinion and then suffer the inevitable consequences when she says no. Even Diana concedes she mollycoddles the girl too much.” Giles paused and masked his frustration while the maid hurried in, bobbed a curtsey, and deposited a huge slice of cake in front of him. Only when she was gone did he resume. “Open your eyes, man! As much as it pains me to say it, with Minerva, Diana, and that bedlamite, Lucretia, there is the minutest chance you might just pull your ridiculous plan off. But currently Minerva is directing too much of her energy to placating the child. Vee seems to come first, last, and always in her eyes.”
“She’s practically her mother and has been since their useless father left them to fend for themselves five years ago!” Hugh was still angry about that, too.
“That’s very noble of her and a dreadful travesty to be sure—but how exactly does that help you?”
“It doesn’t.”
“You employed Minerva to do a job, not rescue her and her family.”
“I’m not rescuing anyone.”
“Really? From where I’m standing, it seems as if Minerva has developed some sort of a hold on you which has diverted you from your purpose.”
“What utter rot! I am neither rescuing Minerva nor infatuated by her.” Although they had shared a moment just before Sarah ruined his day. A strange, charged, wonderful moment when she had looked into his eyes and he found himself drowning in hers. Happily drowning in hers. Surely that was only curiosity? And perhaps a healthy dose of lust?
“Did I mention anything about infatuation?”
Damn!
Before Giles had a field day with his friend’s unfortunate choice of word, Hugh nipped it in the bud. “You insinuated it. Do not deny it. I can read you like a book.”
“I am delighted to hear it. Actually falling for your fake fiancée would be an utter disaster—one that would only end in catastrophe. You are in grave danger, old boy, of starting to care about her feelings.”
“Balderdash.” Hugh brushed it away, trying to ignore the way Giles’s warning set his mind reeling. “I am simply trying to keep everyone happy in order to get on with the job in hand. And clearly failing.” Hugh felt his heart race, adding panic to the seething cauldron of uncomfortable emotions churning in his gut, because he did care about Minerva’s feelings. “To be honest, I’m at my wits’ end!”
“Then put your foot down!” His friend took a huge bite of cake and waved his fork at Hugh. “Sometimes you are too nice for your own good.”
“Nice?” That was almost as bad as “infatuated.”
“Yes. Nice. That’s why you have reached the end of your tether.” The fork wafted in the air. Hugh considered snatching it out of his hand and stabbing it into Giles’s forehead. “You spend far too much time pussyfooting around others rather than putting them in their place. Which ironically is what got you into this ridiculous predicament in the first place. You should have told your mother to stop interfering in your life … but, no! You created a convoluted buffer to avoid the confrontation. You’d be a fool to avoid it this time. Stop allowing Minerva to pander to Vee. Demand your money’s worth! I’m sure you can do it subtly if that’s more palatable to your namby-pamby sensibilities. You’re a charming fellow and a rich one. Engage a chaperone for the chit and send the pair of them to stay in your house in Mayfair. Vee will be safely supervised in one of Berkeley Square’s finest houses, Minerva will be placated and able to focus solely on the role of your fiancée, and if the gods are in your favor, a miracle will occur and your mother will sail back to Boston none the wiser.”
As a plan, it made sense. Miss Venus Merriwell was the weakest link. And he wanted to punch Giles in his annoyingly smug face for being right again. “How can you eat more cake now?”
“I’m starving.” The fork jabbed again. “But cease trying to change the subject, because I will not allow it. Vee’s emotions are too close to the surface and her efforts at pretending to be a lady fall woefully short.”
“I know.”
“Then the time for avoidance is done. You are master of this house. Be masterful, Hugh! You know I’m right.”
“I know!” Yet it didn’t make him want to pummel his irritating friend any less.
“Splendid.” The last piece of cake disappeared into Giles’s mouth. “I’ll ride on ahead with the girls and Loony Lucretia and you find a way to hang back with Minerva.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem. She really is useless on a horse.” Another thing he was irrationally furious about. Who couldn’t sit on a blasted horse, for pity’s sake?
Some sort of truce had occurred by the time they rejoined the ladies in the stable yard. Lucretia was standing awkwardly on the opposite side of the cobbles with Diana, while Minerva and Vee sat together on a bench. It was obvious the youngest Merriwell had been crying, but once again her sister had managed to placate her, judging by her overbright smile as he and Giles approached. She nudged Vee, who looked miserably up at Hugh with watery eyes. “I apologize, Lord Fareham. I overreacted.”
“Apology accepted.” Despite his own black mood, he still felt sorry for the girl. He remembered that age only too well. It had been a horrible, confusing time filled with pimples, and he had only suffered through the traumatic loss of one parent, not both of them. “You’ll feel better after a good gallop across the fields.” As would he. Not that he could, thanks to her vexing older sister and the awkward conversation that couldn’t be put off any longer.
He avoided Minerva while the horses were brought around.
Much as he loathed Giles’s being right, Hugh needed to take charge. He needed to be resolute in what he wanted because this was his foolhardy plan, and he couldn’t allow the delicate feelings of a child to destroy it. This was a business transaction, plain and simple, and he was paying Minerva to give it her full attention. He would put his foot down if the need arose. Stop being so nice—what an insultingly insipid word!—and cease all carnal thoughts that clouded his mind and muddied the water. And he needed to put all the tangled feelings churned up by Sarah back in the dusty corner of his mind.