Flirting with His Forbidden Lady--A Regency Family is Reunited by Laura Martin (good novels to read txt) 📕

care for the woman you marry and I get the impression you wouldn’t much notice if it were Lady Elizabeth or one of a hundred other debutantes walking down the aisle.’

Leo ran his hand through his hair and patted his horse distractedly on the neck as he considered Josh’s words.

‘You’re not wrong. I find myself unable to feel anything for someone I barely know and my enthusiasm for the task of getting to know her is limited, but I’m not sure I agree that affection is important for marriage.’ He gave a sad little smile. ‘In fact, I think love can be destructive. Better to have a union where the focus is on duty rather than love.’

‘Do you truly believe that?’

‘Yes.’ He sounded so definite, so convinced of his own point of view that Josh fell silent. He wasn’t privy to all the major events in his brother’s life. The letters he’d received had told him of graduating university, taking over the running of the estates for Lord Abbingdon, trips to the continent and interesting insights into rural English life, but they hadn’t been very rich on personal details. This fitted with the staid and serious personality of the man walking next to him, but Josh did wonder if Leo was hiding behind that persona just a little. Just as he wondered if someone, a woman, a lover, had helped shape the unromantic stance Leo was taking. If perhaps his serious older brother had once had his heart broken.

Leo clapped him lightly on the shoulders. ‘Do not worry, let us see what happens in Sussex. Nothing is settled yet.’

Chapter Eight

‘Brace yourself,’ Joshua Ashburton murmured in her ear as they ascended the steps to Miss Culpepper’s neat town house.

Beth was flanked on each side by an Ashburton brother, feeling decidedly small between the two towering men.

‘Josh,’ Leo said admonishingly and then cleared his throat. ‘Although I do have to warn you, Lady Elizabeth, Miss Culpepper can sometimes be a little...’ he searched for the right word ‘...abrupt.’

Abrupt she could deal with. She might have lived a sheltered life in Sussex, but she had still socialised and she was well aware of Miss Culpepper’s type. Single spinsters of a certain age with tongues that spat words to sting like a flick of a whip. Beth had encountered enough in her time to know that the best way to deal with women like that was to be polite, unfalteringly cheerful, but firm. It was important not to let yourself be bullied.

‘You don’t have to come in,’ Leonard Ashburton said across her head to his brother.

‘I wouldn’t miss this for the world.’

She caught the look between the two men and she wondered, not for the first time, why Joshua Ashburton was there.

As Leonard Ashburton stepped up to Miss Culpepper’s door she leaned over and whispered quietly, ‘Why are you here?’

‘Miss Culpepper will not be pleased to see me,’ he said grimly. ‘But I had this strange compulsion, this need to come and meet the woman who separated me from Leo when we were mourning our parents.’ He shrugged. ‘You should thank me. I’m sure most of her spite will come in my direction and not yours.’

The door opened and an elderly butler ushered them inside, showing them through the neat but plain hallway into a drawing room.

Miss Culpepper sat in an upright chair next to the fireplace. She acknowledged them when they entered but did not rise. Beth found herself watching the interaction between Miss Culpepper and Leonard Ashburton. She had raised him, looked after him from the age of eight, but she didn’t move to embrace him.

‘Have a seat. Mr Watkins, will you see that tea is prepared? I will ring the bell for the maid to bring it in when we are ready.’

The butler silently glided from the room and closed the door behind him. Beth sat, feeling the tension in the room already as Miss Culpepper glared openly at Joshua Ashburton.

‘I didn’t realise you were bringing your brother, Leonard.’

‘I wanted to meet you. We are family, after all.’

‘Hmm. I understand you will soon be leaving again for India. There is hardly any point in trying to forge relationships.’

It was the first time Beth had ever seen Joshua Ashburton at a loss for words. She wanted to reach out and take his hand, to squeeze it and remind him he wasn’t the little boy who had been rejected, that he was a successful and well-loved man. He had spoken warmly about his guardian and she didn’t doubt, even though Joshua had been the one unwanted by any of his own family, he’d had the more loving upbringing.

‘Lady Elizabeth, I hear my great-nephew is considering you for his future wife.’

‘We are considering each other, Aunt,’ Leonard Ashburton corrected her quietly but firmly.

‘Strange arrangement. What do you think you would bring to the marriage?’

Beth blinked. She’d expected an interrogation, but had thought there would be at least a little bit of small talk first. Instead Miss Culpepper had jumped right in with the questions she wanted Beth to answer.

‘She is the daughter of an earl,’ Joshua Ashburton said, leaning back in his chair and crossing one foot over the other. ‘Even I know an earl is higher in the hierarchy than a viscount.’

Miss Culpepper flashed him a look filled with icy disgust.

‘Indeed. Although all of society knows Lady Elizabeth needs this match more than Leonard. The dire situation of your family’s finances is often gossiped about.’

Feeling her stomach clench, Beth glanced at Josh and could see he was about to jump to her defence, so she spoke quickly.

‘My family may be struggling now, Miss Culpepper, but we did not through my formative years. I had the finest education, the best opportunities. My mother ensured I excelled in all the skills a well-bred young lady should, but also saw I was versed in the practical side of a marriage. I can run a large household, throw sumptuous dinner parties, make small talk with the