Read Rushed to the Altar for Free Online Page B

square of Mechlin lace was dropped in her lap and she mopped at her streaming eyes.
    “Thank you.” She dabbed her mouth with the handkerchief and then crumpled it into a ball in her hand as she raised her pink face and stared at him with damp and reddened eyes. “I must have misheard you.”
    “Oh, I doubt that,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m sure you heard me correctly, but if you promise not to choke again I’ll repeat it if you wish.”
    She held out a hand as if to ward him off. “No, don’t do that, I beg you. What an absurd thing to say.”
    He seemed to consider the matter before saying, “I can see how you might think that. But you haven’t heard all the details as yet.”
    “Spare me the details.” Clarissa began to get up. “I don’t see why you should wish to make game of me, but now you’ve amused yourself so thoroughly at my expense I will take my leave.”
    “Sit down, Clarissa.”
    The peremptory tone was so unexpected she dropped back into her chair and stared at him again. “I don’t understand.”
    “No, of course you don’t. But if you’d give me a chance to explain I hope to enlighten you.”
    Clarissa continued to regard him with all the fascination of a paralyzed rabbit with a fox. She remained in her seat, unsure which of them was mad but certain one of them was.
    “I wish you to play a part for a few months. It will enrich you beyond your wildest dreams if you can play it convincingly enough, and I can safely promise you that you will never have to earn your living in places such as this again.”
    “But I d—” Clarissa closed her lips firmly on the denial. Some devil prompted her to hear the full insanity of this scheme. She clasped her hands over his handkerchief, then let them lie easily in her lap and tilted her head in a composed invitation for him to continue.
    Jasper chuckled. “Oh, I can see you playing the part to perfection,” he murmured. “I had the feeling from the first moment of our meeting that you were rather more than you appeared.” He leaned forward. “Listen carefully.”
    Clarissa listened in incredulous silence. In order to claim a fortune for himself the earl needed a harlot who would pretend to be in love with him, give up her evil ways, and embrace a life of strict convention and morality in order to marry him. In return, after the weddingthe earl would settle upon her a munificent sum that would enable her to live her life exactly as she chose.
    “It would probably be better if you chose to live abroad, at least for a time, after the formalities are concluded,” Jasper finished. “As I said, you will have an easy competence that will enable you to go anywhere you choose.”
    “Is this marriage to be legally binding?” Clarissa was so fascinated by this rigmarole that she found herself responding as if it was a proposition to be seriously considered.
    “It will have to be.” Jasper spoke briskly. “But after a certain length of time we will have the marriage annulled.”
    “On what grounds? It is to be a Catholic ceremony, as I understand it. There are no acceptable grounds.”
    “Non-consummation,” he informed her drily. “That is generally sufficient.”
    Clarissa felt herself blush a little, much to her annoyance. “Just how would you go about this charade?”
    “Quite simply.” Jasper rose and brought over the decanter. He filled Clarissa’s glass and she was too absorbed in the wild tangle of her thoughts to stop him. He filled his own and sat down again. “We will begin in the usual way. I will become one of your clients, and will request of Mistress Griffiths your exclusive services. This will involve a contract to which all three of us will append our signatures.”
    She ought to interrupt, to tell him he was laboringunder a terrible misunderstanding, but somehow the words would not come to her lips. She looked down at her clasped hands in her lap and let the earl’s plan take shape around her.
    “And