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.**
“Oh, I love it, Hugh! Priscilla is an absolute joy and now that little Hugh is walking, he is a handful. The scrapes that child gets himself—”
“Little Hugh?” Diana stopped glaring at him long enough to look perplexed, making Mrs. Edgerton’s mouth close like a frightened clamshell as she blinked at her, embarrassed.
“After his grandfather,” offered his mother helpfully. “He was a Hugh, too.”
“There are suddenly so many Hughs, it’s hard to keep up.” She resumed glaring at him again. “Is ‘Hugh’ a Hampshire name?”
He felt Minerva’s fingers tighten in his, but before either of them could say anything, his mother did.
“It is a Standish name, Diana dear. Little Hugh is Hugh’s grandson.”
“Hugh has grandchildren!”
“Not my Hugh, dear. He is named after his father. Little Hugh is his half nephew.” Brazen, blatant, as if such a bombshell was of absolutely no consequence at all. Diana’s cup paused midway to her mouth as she looked from him to Sarah and back again. “And that is absolutely right, dear.… Sarah is indeed Hugh’s half sister.”
“I see.”
“So you see, Diana, your father marrying an actress is nowhere near as scandalous as this family.” Then, as if she hadn’t done enough damage, his mother turned to Captain Peters. “I suppose you know all about the scandalous Landridges, don’t you, Captain Peters? I suppose juicy titbits of gossip fly around Chipping Norton as quickly as they do here in Hampshire. I should imagine the tale of a country squire marrying an actress fresh from the stage of Drury Lane made quite a stir in sleepy Chipping Norton?”
“I confess, up until today, I’ve never heard of the Chipping Norton Landridges.”
“We live in one of the outlying villages.” Minerva spoke for the first time, and Hugh loved her all the more for loyally trying, but the putrid stink of the end was in sight, and he knew it would take a miracle at this stage to stop it. “It’s … um … quite remote.”
“Which one? Being one of the only physicians for miles, my father knows them all well. I used to accompany him on his rounds as a boy. Heythrop? Swerford? No … don’t tell me…” Suddenly, “Guess the Remote Village” was a diverting game. “Adlestrop? Churchill? Enstone? One of the Tews?”
“Oh!” Diana slipped off the sofa into a heap on the floor, wafting her hand around like Lucretia. “I feel faint … so dizzy…”
“Fetch the smelling salts, Payne!” Jeremiah jumped to attention and immediately went to her aid.
The reprieve galvanized Hugh. “Open the windows! Let in some air!” He was sorely tempted to throw himself out of them. But alas, the fickle finger of fate was not done with the surprises, because Giles chose that exact moment to appear in the doorway.
Chapter Thirty-One
“What the blazes is going on?” Lord Bellingham blinked as he took in the scene.
“Diana fainted.” Although, it had been a shockingly poor performance as far as Minerva was concerned. It was patently obvious Jeremiah knew something was afoot, because each time he glanced at Hugh kneeling next to Diana, his eyes narrowed.
“Does she need me to loosen her stays? I’m an expert on loosening stays.”
“Giles! How lovely to see you!” Hugh’s mother enveloped him in an enormous hug, her smile overbright and her welcome too effusive. “But if any stays need loosening, it most definitely won’t be by you. Allow me to introduce you to everyone.”
In a surreal spectacle she couldn’t quite believe, Minerva watched Hugh and Jeremiah lift her sister back onto the sofa while Lucretia began to snore again and Olivia paraded Lord Bellingham around the room, blithely introducing him to everyone. “Mrs. Edgerton … Captain Peters … Mrs. Sarah Peters”—she briefly glared at her son—“Hugh’s half sister…”
“What? I go away for a few weeks and he suddenly gains a sister?”
“He’s had one for thirty-two years, dear.” She patted Lord Bellingham’s hand and scowled at her son again. “I thought he might have told you. But alas, he is one for secrets—and the occasional lie.” Blue eyes so like Hugh’s swiveled to Minerva’s, and in that moment she realized Olivia was beginning to smell the rot.
“He is indeed.… Is that biscuits I see? I’m famished…”
To keep the woefully leaky boat afloat, Olivia and Jeremiah commanded the conversation, keeping it off the rutted road to Chipping Norton and on to safer topics, leaving Hugh to ferociously waft a lace fan at Diana’s face for much longer than was necessary. At a loss as to what else to do, Minerva poured everyone more tea while her heart threatened to beat out of her chest, then she sat and tried to fade into the upholstery.
A few seconds later, Hugh’s best friend decided to sit next to her, clearly still laboring under the misapprehension they were about to elope.
“You look ravishing, Miss Minerva.” He kissed her hand and lingered over it, winking. “I missed you.”
“That’s nice.” She tried to tug her hand away.
“How have you been?”
“Good … busy…” She could hardly drag him off for an urgent conversation.
“Did you miss me?” Minerva rolled her eyes, hoping that would convey her message.
“Stop flirting with my future daughter-in-law, you rascal! Can’t you see your advances are falling on deaf ears?”
“You cannot blame a fellow for trying, Olivia. I still hold out the forlorn hope dearest Minerva will see sense and run away with me.” He stared deeply into her eyes, every inch the Casanova he had been charged to play. “Just imagine how much better life will be with me.”
“The wedding gown is being made and the banns have been read, Giles. Twice.”
Lord Bellingham glanced over at Hugh, who seemed to be jealously scowling at the pair of them, or rather at Minerva’s hand still grasped within his friend’s. “Then thank goodness I came back just in the nick of time. Everyone knows they are not official until the third one.” He kissed her hand again. “Did I ever tell you I will become a duke one day?”
“Did I ever tell you about the time I played Cleopatra at Drury Lane?” Lucretia had awoken.
“Did the critics call it a triumph?” An uncharacteristically belligerent and sarcastic Hugh had abandoned Diana and decided to wedge his bottom on the small settee between Minerva and Giles. “And welcome back, my friend. Do I have some interesting things to tell you…”
Apparently oblivious to the odd atmosphere, Sarah and her family stayed another half an hour, by which time everyone except Olivia and Giles, and the actress who was dead to the world, had quite run out of polite things to say and were willing the guests to leave. When they did, they all waved them off at the door with tight smiles. It had barely shut when Jeremiah’s smile slipped off his face and his fists went to his hips.
“What the hell is going on!”
“My sentiments exactly, my dear—although let us take this back to the drawing room rather than cause a scene in front of the servants.” Olivia glared at the hovering Payne, who was doing his best to blend in with the oak paneling. “I suspect we shall need more tea.”
“And a big plate of biscuits…” Giles unapologetically shrugged at Hugh’s disbelieving stare. “Surely you cannot expect me to spectate on an empty stomach?”