Read The Gilded Web for Free Online Page A

afraid. And she told me I might kill her before she would beg anyone to pay a ransom for her.”
    â€œI am going to have to marry her, am I not?” Lord Eden said. “I have been trying to ignore the knowledge for the past few minutes. There is no other course open to me, is there? Unless Purnell lays me out cold, of course.”
    â€œThat has already been taken care of,” his brother said quietly.
    â€œYou mean you have made my offer for me?” Lord Eden asked, eyebrows raised. He looked at his brother more closely, and his eyes sharpened. “Oh, no, Edmund, not you. You have not offered for the girl, have you? You can’t do it, old chap. This has nothing whatsoever to do with you.”
    â€œOn the contrary,” Lord Amberley said. “Miss Purnell has spent the night in my house, Dom. And I found her and was a few minutes alone with her in Madeline’s bedchamber. I will be offering for her. You need have no worries on that head.”
    â€œOh, I say,” his brother said, flushing and confronting Lord Amberley across the desk. “I can’t allow that, you know. You cannot always be taking my burdens on your shoulders, Edmund. I am the one responsible for this mess. I must be the one to marry her.”
    â€œI shall be calling on Lord Beckworth after luncheon,” Lord Amberley said, a note of finality in his voice, “regardless of your plans, Dom. Now, if you will excuse me, I shall go and shave and tidy myself. My clothes were very hastily donned before I came down here.”
    â€œLord Beckworth!” Lord Eden said. “She isn’t Beckworth’s daughter, is she? Good God, I wouldn’t like to cross that character. But I seem to have done just that, don’t I? I’m not sure I’ll particularly enjoy crossing swords with the brother either, if it comes to that. And Miss Purnell, Edmund—is she pretty?”
    â€œQuite remarkably lovely, I would guess, when she is properly groomed,” Lord Amberley said from the doorway as he let himself out of the room.

I T IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS NOTION I EVER heard,” Alexandra said. “I am all but betrothed to his grace, James. Why did you not simply tell the earl that? How can he possibly think of paying his addresses to me? You should have told him that the idea was quite out of the question.”
    â€œHe is doing the honorable thing, Alex,” James said. “You were compromised last night, and though I hope that somehow you can avoid this marriage, I must respect his willingness to do what is right.”
    â€œBut Papa will not agree to let him speak with me. Will he? Mama? I will be mortified beyond all speech if I have to face him again. I had hoped never to have to do so.”
    â€œI do not see quite how your father can say no under the circumstances,” Lady Beckworth said. She looked troubled. “If only you had not gone wandering outside on your own, Alexandra. You know that it was not at all the proper thing to do. Papa is going to be very angry with you, and with me too for not keeping a closer eye on you.”
    â€œIt was not your fault, Mama.” Alexandra got to her feet and paced restlessly to the window of her mother’s sitting room. Her father had been called away by the arrival of the Earl of Amberley even before they had risen from the luncheon table. That was the first she had known of the earl’s plan to offer her marriage. Nanny Rey had fussed her into bed as soon as they had arrived home that morning, and she had been there ever since.
    â€œYou said it was all a mistake, James,” she said, turning back to her brother, who stood close to the door, his hands clasped behind his back. “Lord Eden had intended to kidnap his sister. I cannot imagine why he would have wished to do such a thing, but it is really a matter between them. The point is that he meant me no harm. And no real harm was done except that I spent an