Read Never a Bride for Free Online

sparkle in your eyes.”
    Her father chuckled. “Dear girl, you’ve said the same thing every evening for the past two months, and I’m still not strong enough to walk down the stairs by myself. Do you ever give up?”
    “Never.” She smiled at him. “And I say it today and every day because it’s true,” she insisted, knowing she was fibbing, but it was the only way she knew to keep up his spirits. She was sure he’d be doomed if he ever gave up hope of getting better.
    His green eyes glinted mischievously. “Then I must be the healthiest looking sick man in all of London.”
    Mirabella laughed. “Oh, Papa, I’m so happy when you feel good enough to tease me. You know, I still think one of the things that keeps you so weak is all the medication the doctor gives you.”
    “Hmm.” He fingered his gray beard as he thought about what she’d said. “It is a lot, but I’m sure the man knows what he’s doing. He’s up on the latest medications. Now, tell me how many parties you attended last night, who you saw and who you danced with.”
    He always changed the subject whenever she mentioned his illness. She knew he didn’t want her to be upset by his declining health, but how could she not be? She loved him. He was all she had now that Sarah was gone and Aunt Helen had left for their country home in Kent.
    “Uncle Archer and I attended three parties. We stayed so long I felt quite distressed that I kept him out late.” She didn’t want to talk about anyone in particular that she’d danced with. The less she told her father about the parties, the better. She didn’t want him suspicious of anything.
    She would have loved to tell him about the gentleman she met on the street, but she couldn’t share that meeting with anyone, not even her trusted maid, Lily. That man had intrigued her so that she hadn’t been able to sleep last night for remembering everything they said to each other. Maybe she would have shared it with Sarah were she still here, but no one else.
    Mirabella didn’t understand the thrilling sensations that had washed over her when the gentleman had smiled at her, when he had touched her hand and when he had looked deeply into her eyes while questioning her about why she was out alone. She would keep those memories for herself and remember how he talked, how he looked, how he smelled, and how he tasted when her lips touched his skin.
    “I’m sure the lateness of the hour didn’t bother Archer. He’s always been something of a night owl.”
    He placed one finger under her chin. “Tell me. Are you doing all right without Helen in the house?”
    “Oh, yes, Papa. I miss her, of course, but I understand why she needed to get away to the country during the Season. I miss Sarah most of all.”
    “It was absolutely wretched what happened to the poor girl. Dying in her sleep like that while still so young.” Her father paused and cupped Mirabella’s cheek. “I know how desperately Helen wanted to make a match for her ward and see her happily wed. But with her being so plain, and that problem with her eye, it was almost an impossible task from the beginning.”
    Mirabella’s heart grew heavy. Sarah’s appearance belied the sweet, devoted person she was inside. Anger and frustration coiled tightly inside Mirabella, remembering how helpless she’d felt when she’d been told of Sarah’s death. If only Sarah had come and talked to her and told her what had happened. Mirabella could have helped her.
    In her diary, Sarah had written she was afraid Mirabella’s father would throw her out on the street, so she couldn’t bring shame to his house if he learned she was with child. Mirabella would have never let her father do that to Sarah. She could have gone to their home in Kent to have her baby, and lived there with her child.
    Mirabella’s thoughts drifted to the past, to when she was ten and heartbroken because her mother had died of consumption. Her father had asked his maiden sister, Helen,