The Babe and the Baron Read Online Free

Freddie had failed to inherit that strong jaw, so obvious in both brothers as to be almost a caricature. The stubbornness it suggested, Laura's husband had possessed in full measure, however—at least where his own actions were concerned. She might go her own way, as long as she did not try to interfere with his. How much easier life had been since she realized that!
    She had had enough of handsome, charming, stubborn gentlemen. “No,” she reiterated, “I cannot accept your kind offer.”
    Lord Wyckham flushed. “It is not a matter of kindness or generosity, ma'am,” he said stiffly. “I should be failing in my duty if I permitted a female relative to live alone in reduced circumstances.”
    “Not at all the thing,” put in the captain.
    “Not the thing!” Laura rounded on him, shaking with sudden anger. “Sir, I have been living virtually alone for four years without Society caring a groat. I care not a groat for Society's opinion.”
    “That's not what I meant,” he protested and opened his mouth again to explain. His brother glared at him. He shrugged, saluted ironically, and sauntered away, whistling.
    “I believe Rupert meant that my failing in my duty would be not at all the thing,” Lord Wyckham said with a rueful smile that Laura mistrusted. “Indeed, it would not. Will you be seated, ma'am, while we discuss the matter?”
    Though she considered there was nothing to discuss, she was glad to return to the bench. Sinking down at one end with a sigh, she pulled the basket and colander towards her and waved an invitation to his lordship to take the other end. With the colander in her black-clad lap—the black dye had faded already, she noted—she continued to shell the beans as she spoke.
    “I am sorry if your failure to persuade me will distress you, or bring censure upon you, though that I doubt. In any case, you cannot be accused of permitting me to live alone, since you have no authority over me. Indeed, I acknowledge no one's authority.”
    “Understandable.” He nodded, and she knew he was aware that her family had rejected her as Freddie's had rejected him; that speaking of Society she thought of her mother and father, her brothers and sisters. “ ‘Permitted' was the wrong word,” he went on, “and I am more concerned for your comfort than my reputation, or yours.”
    She smiled at him, noting the sensitivity of his mouth, at odds with that determined chin. “So it is kindness that brings you, not duty.”
    “ Touché .” He laughed, dark blue eyes crinkling at the corners. “I plead guilty to contradicting myself, but not to prevarication. Call it mixed motives. To which may I add that I should be very pleased to welcome you to Llys.”
    His charm strengthened Laura's resistance. “I am perfectly comfortable here,” she said, fishing a pink apple-blossom petal out of the colander of pale green beans. “My neighbours are pleasant, obliging people. The cottage is mine. My father's lawyer sends me ten pounds every quarter day, I have a little money put away, and I earn more with my sewing.”
    “Sewing!” he exclaimed, shocked. “My dear Lady Laura, that is—”
    “Not at all the thing?” She reached for another bean, hesitated as she saw a long-legged spider clambering over the heap of pods.
    Before she could steel herself to deal with the horrid creature, Lord Wyckham whipped out his handkerchief, gently caught it, and shook it out on the ground. The simple action brought tears to her eyes. How long since anyone had protected her from a spider?
    “Very well,” she said in a shaky voice. “I shall come to Llys. But I will not promise to stay, and I will not sell the cottage.”
    He had won. Did he realize he owed his victory to a spider? More likely he supposed he had made her recognize the enormity of earning her living. What a very proper, conventional gentleman he was.
    How different from Freddie!
    “Excellent,” he said matter-of-factly, standing up. “My carriage is