Read Regency Romance: The Rake's Fake Marriage (Historical Arranged Marriage Romance) (19th Century Victorian Romance) for Free Online Page B

mountain.
    Elizabeth breathed in the evening air. It smelled surprisingly clean and fresh. She lifted her head and enjoyed the breeze blowing past her cheeks. She was aware that Tyler was watching her. All men watched her. She was used to it.
    He took in her beauty as soon as he saw it, her slender figure in a beautifully woven dress with embroidery designs throughout and lace adorning its edges. She walked like a lady. Her soft light brown hair was held back with barrettes and pins, and her dark green eyes flashed when she looked at him. Her voice was slightly haughty when she spoke to him. He could see that she was used to being a lady. She hadn’t mentioned in her letter that she was raised wealthy, but her appearance and demeanor gave her away immediately.
    His heart sank a little. He didn’t want to regret his decision to invite her. He was hoping for someone to laugh and have fun with, as well as work to make the farm comfortable and happy again.
    She shook her head in response to his question.
    “No, ” She said. “My father…my father owed a lot of people very large amounts of money. I was not able to keep anything that was brought in from the sale.”
    “Oh. I’m sorry.”
    She shook her head and followed him down the steps to the ground where he had parked his small two-person carriage. “Don’t be. You had nothing to do with it, did you.” She wasn’t asking.
    He didn’t respond.
    She stood next to the door to the carriage and waited for him to pull it open for her. He came around to pull down on the handle and pushed it open so that she could get in. He held out his hand, which she took, even though she needed no help stepping up on the extended stair. He smiled at her, but her return smile was quick and did not reach her eyes.
    He stifled a sigh. He hoped more than anything she would adjust and become a more considerate young woman. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake with the whole thing.
     
    She was quiet most of the ride to the farm. It was a twenty-minute ride, and they had to pass through the town of Dunnam first. To Elizabeth’s eyes, it looked dreary, dry and dirty. The people looked poor . She felt completely out of place. She knew her cheeks were burning red the entire way through town.
    Even when they left the town, she still felt uneasy. He hadn’t looked pleased when she complained about the heat.
    “Are you uncomfortable?” He asked at one point. She tried not to reply with a haughty tone but failed.
    “I am still in this dress.” She immediately regretted her sarcasm and licked her lips. “I apologize for being rude. I am still very new to…everything. My…life has changed a lot in the last few months.”
    “How long ago did you say your parents passed?”
    “They were killed a few weeks ago. But…my family moved from Washington D.C. about three months ago after my father lost all of his money.”
    “Why did you relocate to Virginia?” Tyler asked.
    “My father knew a man there. He gave us a place to live. When my parents died, I was not able to stay there. It was a very small , very old shack anyway . I didn’t really want to stay there.”
    “So you didn’t have time to make friends with anyone?”
    Elizabeth shook her head. “No, we were only there a short time and the man who let us rent the shack had told everyone in town about my father before we arrived.”
    “What did he tell them?”
    Elizabeth sighed. She didn’t want to rehash her past anymore. She had come here for a fresh start. But she supposed she was going to have to learn her place eventually, so she answered him. “My father was an advisor to President Lincoln when he was young.”
    “Oh, he was a politician, was he?”
    “Yes. And he was very successful at what he did and was valued by the administration. But when Lincoln was killed , my father’s morals seemed to die with him.”
    Tyler didn’t know what to say to that. She was admitting her father was a corrupt politician. He could tell she