Read In Pursuit of Eliza Cynster for Free Online Page B

found himself both bored and resentful of the increasing demands of the ladies involved, so he had, as gently as possible, ended the liaisons.
    Over recent years, he’d clung to his recluse’s shield and kept his distance from all females, deeming any further dalliance likely to be more trouble than it was worth. Leonora had prodded him, insisting that his past experiences simply meant that he hadn’t yet met the lady who, to him, would be worth the trouble, would be worth putting himself out to engage with.
    Logically he had to concede the point, but he continued to have severe doubts that such a lady might exist, much less that she would cross his path.
    Intellectually, he was both wary and distantly dismissive of ladies. Wary because he occasionally wondered if they, operating on some different plane of rationality, actually knew more than he, at least about social subjects. Distantly dismissive because, when it came to reason and logic, he’d never met any whose abilities commanded his respect.
    Admittedly, only a small cohort of gentlemen made that grade either.
    Nevertheless, now that he’d decided — had he? Yes, he rather thought he had — to find himself a wife, he was going to have to … how would Tristan and his Bastion Club colleagues phrase it?… devise a campaign to achieve his goal.
    His goal being to find, woo, and secure the hand of a lady of impeccable character with all the characteristics he’d described.
    It wouldn’t hurt if she was passably pretty, and of similar social station, too; he would be no help if the poor woman needed guidance in such complicated matters as who had precedence entering a room.
    So, campaign goal in place, how to move toward it? His first step had to be to locate a suitable candidate.
    Leonora would help in a heartbeat if he asked her.
    If he did … the old biddies, Tristan’s pack of elderly female relatives, would instantly leap into the fray, too. Nothing he, Leonora, or Tristan might say or do would be able to avoid that — and the likely subsequent catastrophe; while infinitely well-meaning, the old ladies had very definite ideas and were as bossy as they came.
    So … if he couldn’t ask Leonora for help, then he couldn’t ask any female for help. He knew that much. Which left him with the males — Tristan and his erstwhile colleagues, all now good friends, including Royce.
    He tried to imagine any help they might give, but other than their giving him tactical advice — which he’d already had over the years from them — he couldn’t see them helping him identify and meet his specific young lady; they were all married, and, as he did, avoided society as much as they could. So no help there.
    Reaching deeper into his acquaintance, there were several unmarried gentlemen he knew through his connection with the Cynsters, yet from their occasional meetings he’d got the impression that they, too, kept society — at least those circles in which unmarried young ladies swarmed — at a distance.
    Hmm. Considering the issue more broadly, it appeared that all the gentlemen he knew, or had any affinity with, avoided the wider company of young ladies … until they needed to find one to marry.
    He frowned. Slowing Jasper, he trotted into Knowesgate; immediately they were past the small knot of cottages, he eased the reins and let Jasper run.
    There had to be someone he could appeal to for assistance in locating his necessary wife. The idea of finding her on his own … he wouldn’t know where to start.
    The thought of Almack’s was enough to put him off the project altogether … so there had to be some other way.
    A mile further on, he still hadn’t thought of any useful option. He passed the lane that led to the hamlet of Kirkwhelpington and rattled on around a long, wide curve, keeping Jasper to a spanking pace.
    A coach, the first he’d sighted that day, appeared ahead, rumbling steadily toward him around the curve.
    “Damn.” The road wasn’t a major