Read The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell for Free Online Page A

food was all fresh and prepared by master cooks. She couldn’t run
     away and she couldn’t refuse. But oh, how she wished she could.
    “It could have waited a few days, John.” Her mother slapped her palm softly against
     the table. “I don’t care what room it was.”
    Thank God. Amelia yawned.
    “Millicent, fer the love of God, do not vex me about this any longer. I have enough
     to keep my mind occupied wondering how much this celebration is going to drain what
     is left in the coffers.”
    “’Tis my brother’s coin. Why should the cost of all this concern ye?”
    Amelia slipped her hand over her father’s and gave him a sympathetic pat.
    “Everyone here thinks the chancellor changed his mind,” her mother continued, lowering
     her voice to a whisper when Lady Josephine Hartington glanced at the table. “They
     whisper that perhaps he has decided to wait for a more sensible wife. They all know
     what she’s like since that unfortunate incident at the Earl of Clare’s wedding last
     spring.”
    John’s crimson face proved that that particular event was scored forever in his brain.
    Dear God, if Amelia hadn’t had Sarah to laugh with her about the incident when she
     returned home, she would have wept for a month. Alice tried to convince her that it
     wasn’t her fault, but even so, Amelia was sorry for ruining the earl’s second wedding.
    It happened on the morn of the ceremony. The earl’s dashing young son, Lord Albert,
     had invited her to go riding. Of course, she’d accepted, which, according to her mother,
     was her first error in good judgment. The ride across the English countryside was
     invigorating, innocent, and quite safe. She was an excellent rider, and Lord Albert
     had been a perfect gentleman. They’d even made it back just before the wedding. But,
     as circumstances often went in Amelia’s case, catastrophe was lurking somewhere just
     inches from her horse’s hooves. To this day, she had no idea what had startled her
     mount into a full gallop, or why the beast had refused to slow down, despite her best
     efforts. She was almost thrown, and would have broken her neck if she hadn’t been
     holding on for dear life, when the mad stallion vaulted over a row of slack-jawed
     guests. Amelia had given the reins one more desperate yank as her wide eyes met the
     earl’s horrified ones. The only thing left to do was squeeze hers shut and pray that
     the earl, his bride, and their priest moved the hell out of the way.
    They had. No one was injured, save for her father’s name. Thanks to her, the name
     Bell had become synonymous with disaster. Amelia was sorry for it, for her father’s
     sake. She was sorry for it all.
    “Enough.” John’s dark gaze over Amelia’s head warned his wife that she had finally
     succeeded in exhausting his patience. “Any man would count himself among the fortunate
     to be given our daughter, sensible or not.”
    Her dear father. He loved her despite her faults. Amelia turned to him and smiled
     softly, bringing happiness to his face for the first time that evening. Whatever would
     she have done without him in her life? When he leaned in and kissed her forehead,
     her eyes welled up with tears. “I love ye, Papa,” she whispered softly enough for
     her mother not to hear.
    “And I ye, dear one.”
    Content, Amelia rested her elbow on the table and dropped her chin into her palm,
     oblivious to one of the pinned curls dangling from her temples plopping into her soup.
     Heavens, she was beginning to lose feeling in her legs. How much longer was this celebration
     going to go on? She closed her eyes. Just for a moment.
      
    “What if the chancellor doesn’t return for her?”
    John Bell swore to himself that if his wife went on about this for one more instant
     he would get up and leave her sitting here alone. “The chancellor will return by morning,”
     he muttered. “The guests aren’t going anywhere.”
    “It is not the morning that