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

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m not going to marry the woman you’re in love with.’

Josh laughed, but the laugh trailed off as he realised his brother was being serious.

‘I’m not in love with her.’

‘I know most people find it strange, this bond we have despite not seeing one another for twenty-five years, Josh, but you are my brother and I know you. Don’t ask me to explain how, but I do. I see how you look at Lady Elizabeth, how you smile when she is around. There is something between the two of you.’

Opening his mouth to protest again, Josh instead forced himself to take a moment. He needed to consider if what his brother was saying was true. There was something between him and Beth, something more than the desire that seemed to simmer between them whenever they were within one another’s sight. He liked her, liked the way she took a moment to consider her words before speaking, the way her face was transformed by a smile. He liked how she really listened when he spoke and how she couldn’t help but reveal her inner thoughts when he asked.

‘I admire Lady Elizabeth,’ Josh said slowly and then shook his head violently. ‘Damn it, Leo, I can’t lie to you.’

They were walking along the beach on the wet sand a few feet from the sea, away from the cliffs they had ridden over half an hour previously. Somewhere behind them Beth and her sister would be doing their best to smile and entertain the other guests, all the while wondering what Josh and Leo were discussing and what implications it had for their future.

The tension in his neck and shoulders was giving him a headache and although he knew he was holding every muscle in his body tense he just couldn’t seem to relax. It was laughable really—he’d calmed unhappy workers, negotiated with the toughest businessmen in India and carved out a future for his guardian’s company in the international market but he couldn’t find the words to express how he felt for Beth.

Leo placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and waited for Josh to look up.

‘Sit with me. Let’s talk. Properly talk.’

Josh nodded. He knew he was the only one to see this side of his brother, that most of society thought Leo was abrupt and unfriendly, but to him he was exactly what a big brother should be: full of kindness and wanting to guide him.

‘I kissed her, Leo,’ he said, making sure the words were clear even though his voice was quiet. He didn’t want to have to repeat the statement. ‘I should have told you. I’m sorry.’

‘I expect it wasn’t yourself you were thinking of.’

Josh nodded. He’d kept the secret for Beth and felt as if it was a betrayal telling his brother now, but there was a difference between omitting telling Leo and lying to him. He couldn’t lie to his brother.

‘Tell me what has developed between you.’

‘She’s a very special woman. Kind and funny and great company.’

‘It isn’t just physical attraction, then?’

Josh shook his head. ‘No, although...’

‘Lady Elizabeth is a pretty young woman.’ Leo said it in a disconnected sort of way, as if he could appreciate her beauty but was not affected by it.

‘We’ve spent a fair bit of time together, at the pleasure gardens and at the opera. I bumped into her in the park.’ It sounded to his ears as though he were trying to justify his feelings for her. In reality he didn’t know what the outcome of this all would be. Leo didn’t seem angry though, more concerned about Josh than anything else.

‘Yet she still arranges this house party to try to further the prospect of our engagement. Does she feel the same way about you as you do about her?’

Josh held out his arms in a gesture that was supposed to mean he was unsure, but after a moment he dropped them to his side. If he stopped and thought about it, he did know.

‘Yes.’ The attraction between them had always been mutual, from the very first time they’d set eyes upon each other in Leo’s garden to the kisses they’d shared just yesterday. It hadn’t been one-sided, hadn’t been him pushing the issue. She had felt it just as much as him. ‘She knows her duty, but she doesn’t like it.’

Leo smiled wryly then, one of the first self-deprecating smiles Josh had seen on his brother’s face since his return to England.

‘I never thought I would be such an unpalatable choice for a husband.’ In anyone else Josh would think the words carried bitterness, but Leo was so detached from the idea of his marriage that he sounded more perplexed than anything else. ‘Surely the answer is that I discreetly withdraw and you two marry.’

If only it were that simple.

‘I understand they are relying on your status and wealth to appease their debtors. Unfortunately an unknown second son just will not do.’

‘Ah. I think I’m starting to understand. Lady Hummingford has impressed the importance of duty on Lady Elizabeth.’

‘Exactly, and Beth feels a responsibility towards her sister. She doesn’t want her to lose her home.’

‘What do you want, Josh?’ Leo asked suddenly, turning all the intensity of his gaze on his brother.

Josh ran his hand through his hair and looked out over the sparkling blue-grey water.

‘Aside from the impossible?’

‘She’s the daughter of an earl, albeit an earl who was in severe debt. You cannot have a dalliance with her.’

‘I know. I know respectable young ladies do not have short affairs with second sons about to leave the country for good.’

‘They don’t have short affairs with anyone.’

‘It’s impossible.’

‘You have two choices,’ Leo said in the infuriatingly calm and sensible way of his. ‘Either you marry her or you forget about her.’

‘What if I can’t do either?’ He couldn’t forget about her, even if he tried. Beth was firmly lodged in his heart and mind and never