Read A Bride Most Begrudging for Free Online Page A

do.”
    He watched her struggle to tuck an unruly bundle of curls back under her kerchief. “How am I to be addressed, then?”
    “Constance.”
    She gasped. “You cannot be serious. I will not allow it.”
    “It is either that or wench,” he said, eyes narrow. “If you do not respond to your Christian name, rest assured I will call you by the other.” She compressed her lips. “And what, pray tell, are you to be addressed as?”
    “Master Drew.”
    “I will call no man master . I have only one master and He resides up above.”
    “Well, you have two now.”
    The cottage door opened and closed. Drew looked back. The woman Josh had contracted for him stood illuminated in the moon’s refulgence.
    “Mary,” Constance breathed.
    Jumping to her feet, Constance hurried to the other woman’s side. What an incongruous picture the embracing women made. One tall with an aura of strength, the other petite and painfully feminine.
    “I’m so glad to see you!” Constance cried.
    “Whatever are you doing here?” Mary responded.
    Josh cleared his throat. “We’ve a bit of a problem, ladies. Seems my brother has acquired two women instead of one.”
    Taking two strides, Drew grasped his brother’s arm. “Josh … ladies, why don’t we step away from the cottage so we don’t wake Grandma and Sally.” He tightened his grip. “Shall we?”
    At the edge of the clearing, he released Josh with a little shove. “Now that you’ve wagged your tongue, you may explain it to them.”
    “Explain what?” he asked. “That you accidentally won Lady Constance in a wager? That everyone present, other than our little redhead, knows you never had any intention of wedding Mary from the start? That the menfolk in the colony are going to hang you by your toes when they hear? Or that Grandma will do even worse?”
    Drew gritted his teeth. “Never mind. I will explain it to them.” Josh rounded his eyes. “By all means.”
    “Ladies,” Drew began, “I won Constance in a wager and have no intention of marrying either one of you.”
    Josh burst out laughing.
    “Joshua!” Drew hissed. “Lower your voice. Grandma might waken, and I have no desire to deal with her tonight over this mishap.”
    “Certainly,” he allowed. “I wouldn’t dream of waking Grandma. Especially not after you went to the extent of leaving Lady Constance in that hold half the night simply to ensure Grandma would be well and truly asleep when you brought her home!”
    “Enough!”
    Josh clamped his mouth shut, but mirth lurked within his eyes. Drew gave his attention back to the women. “Have you any questions?”
    “I’d like a bath now, please,” Constance said. “You do have a sponge and bowl I presume?”
    Drew tightened his lips. “All the captives bathed before the ship docked.”
    “In salt water. It was most unpleasant. Besides, the boat … well, it had a particular stench to it. I thought once I disembarked the odor would take leave. It didn’t. Unless, of course, it’s you I’m smelling and not me.”
    His face warmed by several degrees. “As it happens, Miss Lady of the Realm, my dear mother, God rest her soul, had a peculiar penchant for cleansing one’s person on a regular basis. Josh and I wash every day.”
    Constance gasped. “Every day! Surely you jest. Why, it’s unhealthy to bathe so often. It will extract the oils from your skin and … and … I don’t know what all.”
    “I’ll tell you what all. It extracts the livestock from one’s head and the layers of grime from one’s person. My mother’s been gone nigh on three years, but I haven’t missed a dip in the creek any day during the warm weather or any Sunday during the cold.”
    “Dip in the creek?” she squealed. “You submerge yourself in the water?”
    “I do.”
    “That’s, that’s …” She crossed herself.
    “We expect the same from our servants.”
    Josh’s eyebrows lifted. Mary fanned herself with her hand.
    Constance blanched. “Absolutely