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.**
It was just too damn strong.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The tap on her door woke her up. She must have cried herself to sleep again. “Who is it?”
“Me…” The door opened, and Minerva cursed herself for not having had the good sense to lock it. “I really need to talk to you.” She could see only his outline in the dark room.
“Go away! How dare you come into … Do not sit!”
But he had. Directly on the mattress next to her. Instinctively, she shuffled as far away as she could, clutching the bedcovers tightly around her, acutely aware of his presence in her sanctuary. “Get off my bed!”
“I wrote you a letter like you asked.” His voice was flat and sounded thoroughly miserable.
She blinked into the darkness, hardening herself against the flash of pity she felt for him. “And you expect me to read it now?”
“No…” She heard the whisper of paper as he deposited it on the nightstand. “But what I have to say cannot wait.” Her eyes were slowly adjusting to the dark, enough she could see his broad shoulders weren’t draped in a jacket, and they were decidedly slumped. As if they carried the entire weight of the world. “It is about your father, and you have the right to hear it.”
She would not feel sorry for him.
“Then say it and go.”
“He turned up here unannounced last week while we were at the beach. Fortunately Payne intercepted him and I was alerted to his presence later that evening. He demanded money straightaway and I played along, knowing full well he was unlikely to remain out of sight. I gave him fifty pounds and informed him he could have the remaining fifty once everything was done if he adhered to the terms of the bargain. I also offered him the chance to meet with the three of you that night—he declined, stating you were all better off without him. My keeping it from you was my foolish way of attempting to minimize the hurt his curt dismissal would have caused.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“I know and I am sorry.… Truly I am, but it was well meant if clumsy. Your father admitted he has been living in London since he abandoned you, with some woman who wouldn’t take him with three daughters, as if that was a good-enough excuse. He was entirely unrepentant, in fact. But something about that story didn’t ring completely true, because I remembered your own suspicions about him and that Bow Street had knocked on your door looking for him. I escorted him to the inn, supervised his packing, and had my carriage take him to Southampton to catch the morning post to London. My man watched him board that carriage and leave. That same morning I dispatched a letter to my solicitor instructing him to hire a Bow Street Runner to investigate your father further.” He sighed and rested his head back on the headboard.
“I realize I should have told you all that then—but things were awkward between us and, in my defense, I didn’t want to worry you until I was in complete possession of all the facts. Two days ago, I received the Runner’s preliminary findings and they are not good.”
“What has he done?”
“Quite a bit, it turns out. Your father hasn’t used the name Merriwell in five years. He goes by Smith now—or occasionally Jones. There was a woman. In fact, there have been several, but none have lasted longer than a few months and he changes them as regularly as he changes jobs.”
“He’s working? Good heavens. There’s a turnup for the books.”
“I suppose that depends on your definition of working, for it seems your father has been putting his talent for woodcutting to good use.… He’s been counterfeiting money, Minerva.… And in case you didn’t know, that’s a capital offense.”
“Oh dear…” She blew out a strangled breath. The weird thing was, she wasn’t the least bit surprised. “He cannot be very good at it, else he wouldn’t be resorting to blackmail.”
“The people he works for aren’t particularly discerning or diligent about the quality of their counterfeits. The Runner said they have proof your father has been involved in the practice for over eight years off and on—which meant he was doing it when he still lived with you in Clerkenwell.”
Certain things now made sense. The irregular hours, the unsavory characters knocking at the door, his keenness she develop her talent for the trade when he had never taken any interest in her little drawings before. “I suppose I should be thankful he left when he did. I am sure it was only a matter of time before he tried to rope me into it. He never did have a particularly keen eye for detail or half my talent for drawing.”
“Yesterday, I threatened him with the authorities myself unless he stuck to the terms of our bargain.”
“That was undoubtedly very wise. He daren’t expose you now.”
“I didn’t do it for me. I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me, but I did it for you. I couldn’t bear the thought of him barging in on you in the future and ruining the new life you will make for yourself. Because he was right about one thing—you are better off without him.”
Minerva said nothing. The weak part of her wanted to believe him. Common sense told her he was spinning her a yarn. “My own knight in shining armor … Of course, your selfless bravery on my behalf would also make me feel naturally beholden to you.”
“I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
“What do you want? Thanks? For getting rid of a man who likely wouldn’t be back in my life if I had never met you?”
“I didn’t come here for your gratitude. I came here because I wanted to ask you what you wanted me to do about him.”
“Do?”
“Your father is a wastrel and a crook, Minerva. And you’re right, he is also back because of me and to a much greater extent because of my money. I am also under no illusions he won’t turn up again like an ironic bad penny—either here or later when you are gone, wanting more money. I have the power to stop that if you want me to. All I have to do is pass over my information to the authorities and he’ll never bother you or your sisters again.”
“They’ll hang him.”
“If they catch him. But if I tip him off, then the snake will run in another direction, head to a new town, give himself another alias, and we can leave his future to fate. I wasn’t foolish enough to allow him to leave a second time without putting him under watch. A man who would gladly make his daughters destitute for a measly forty pounds, blackmail one of them and suggest she uses her wiles to make it seventy-five, is not a man who can be trusted.”
“You overheard our conversation?”
“By accident. I wanted to talk to you.… I never meant to make you cry. I feel wretched…”
“Please go.”
“I care for you, Minerva…”
“Get out!” She had thought there were no tears left. “Just leave me alone, Hugh.”
“Can’t we talk about it? About us?”
“Us? What ‘us’ would that be, Hugh? The ‘us’ where I get to be used while you retain your precious freedom?”
“I don’t follow…”
“I am grateful for your help concerning my father but I still won’t be your mistress!”
“Mistress?”
Emotion choked her. “I might not be a genuine gentleman’s daughter, but I was brought up to believe I was. I have the same values as any gentleman’s daughter, the same morals and I will not debase myself by…”
“Mistress!” He grabbed her upper arms, his knees now touching hers as he knelt on the mattress. “What the blazes are you on about? I don’t want a mistress! I’ve never had a blasted mistress! Where in God’s name have you got that mad idea from?”