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

and the feeling right in the centre of his chest—the feeling that he’d been hit by an arrow to the heart.

‘If Lord Abbingdon wasn’t making it a stipulation of his will, would you get married?’ He tried to make the question light, but saw the way Leo’s interest was piqued, the sharpness behind his eyes giving him away.

‘No,’ he said after some deliberation.

Josh nodded. It was what he thought. Despite their differences in personalities, their completely polar upbringings, he and Leo seemed to share the same view on many aspects of their lives.

‘Why not?’

‘What about you? Will you marry?’ Leo asked rather than giving an answer.

‘I doubt it.’ He thought of Beth’s warm smile, the way she moved, the way her body felt in his arms.

‘Why not?’

Josh began speaking, began giving the answer he always did when someone asked him why he wasn’t married, why he wasn’t searching for a wife, but then he paused. If he couldn’t tell the truth to his brother, then who could he ever be truthful with?

‘I always tell people that it is because my life is not compatible with marriage, that I couldn’t ask a woman to give up the comforts of home and join me in the foothills of India.’ He shook his head and took another sip of brandy. ‘Of course, that’s nonsense. Rose, my guardian’s wife, has led a very happy life in India and has never once regretted leaving England with her husband. And there are the women who already live there, of course, the daughters and sisters of other landowners.’

Leo watched him silently, giving him space to continue.

‘I think it was losing our parents at such a young age...’ He trailed off.

‘You don’t want to let anyone too close in case you lose them too.’

He heard the emotion in Leo’s voice and felt a little comfort that he wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

‘You feel the same?’

Nodding, Leo swirled the liquid in his glass around as if needing a distraction from the intensity of his thoughts.

The candle that sat between them had burned low and was flickering now and Josh welcomed the interlude of standing to fetch another from on top of the mantelpiece.

‘I would never presume to tell you what to do,’ Leo said slowly, ‘but I can see you happily married, perhaps with children. You’re good with people, sociable.’

Josh sat back in his chair, the fresh candle giving out a slightly brighter light.

‘I always tell myself I need to focus on the business, not get distracted.’

‘No one could question your dedication, Josh. All these years you’ve worked, getting to know every aspect of the company you will soon run. It is admirable and I doubt a wife would take away anything from your ability to make the business thrive.’

Thinking of how distracted he felt every time Beth entered a room, Josh grimaced. If she were his wife he would find it hard to leave his bed in the morning, tempted to always stay for one more kiss, one more touch.

‘I don’t intend to let my nuptials distract me from looking after the estates and growing the inheritance my children will one day receive.’

Josh was about to murmur something non-committal when a clatter at the veranda door made both men stand up suddenly, setting their glasses down on the table. Josh moved first, darting through the veranda door, his eyes taking a moment to adjust from the candlelit room to the complete darkness of the garden, but nevertheless he saw the movement to his left and reached out and grabbed the person skulking in the shadows.

As soon as his hands touched the person’s wrist he knew it was a woman. The bones were too delicate, the arm too small, to be a man’s. He relaxed his fingers, but the mistake had already been made and the woman in his grasp let out a loud scream.

Josh took two steps back, holding his hands out to try to show he wasn’t a threat.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, peering into the shadows, trying to make out which of the female guests had been walking in the dark of the night. ‘I thought you were an intruder.’

Behind him he felt Leo’s presence and he watched in amazement as Leo reached past him and held out his hand.

‘Come, my brother meant you no harm.’

A delicate, pale hand inched forward hesitantly and eventually rested in Leo’s, allowing him to pull the woman out into the moonlight.

Her head was bent, her free hand up trying to cover one side of her face. It wasn’t any of the female guests, nor any of the maids he’d seen hurrying backwards and forwards throughout the day.

As she took a step she stumbled, her free hand flying from her face, shooting out to steady herself. Josh forced himself not to react as the scars became visible on the pale skin. Three deep, crisscrossing red tracks on her left cheek that pulled and puckered the skin, visible even in the moonlight.

The woman’s eyes shot up, fear filling them as her gaze met his. Josh gave a gentle smile.

‘I’m sorry for startling you,’ he said again.

‘Annabelle.’ Beth’s concerned voice made the three of them on the veranda freeze.

So this was Beth’s mysterious sister.

‘What happened?’ Beth covered the rest of the distance to her sister quickly, almost running to be by her side. She wrapped an arm around Annabelle’s shoulder and then looked accusingly at Josh.

‘She’s shaking.’

‘It’s fine,’ Annabelle said, finally finding her voice. ‘I’m fine.’

‘You’re not, you’re trembling. What happened?’

‘We were in the library and I heard a noise at the door. I thought it was an intruder,’ Josh explained.

‘I didn’t realise there was anyone still up. I was just taking a stroll around the gardens and I thought I would go back in through the library door. I’d already started to turn the handle when I saw a flicker of the candle and realised the room was occupied.’

Josh frowned, wondering why she’d run rather than coming in through the