Read Wanted: Mail-Order Mistress for Free Online

about position and fortune and they don’t look to find fault with everything you do.”
    Mr Grimshaw’s firm jaw clenched tighter and his deep-set eyes narrowed.
    Bethan wished his severity made him look sour and ugly, then she might not have a single regret over what he was about to do. More the pity, he still looked far too attractive for her liking. “Go ahead and say what’s really on your mind, Mr Grimshaw.”
    Her words seemed to catch him off guard, but he soon rallied. “Do you presume to know my mind, Miss Conway? Perhaps you should tell me what I am thinking.”
    “Very well. You’re thinking Mr Northmore made a bad choice and I don’t suit you at all. You want to send me back to England. Well, let me tell you, after the way you’ve treated me today, I’ll be glad to go!”
    Her feelings all churned up, Bethan spun away from Simon Grimshaw, only to find his housekeeper standing in the wide, arched entry. Ah-Ming looked calm and composed, as if she hadn’t heard a word of the bristling exchange between them.
    “Dinner is ready.” The housekeeper bowed. “Cook has prepared a fine feast in my lady’s honour.”
    “Thank you, Ah-Ming,” Mr Grimshaw replied. “We will be along shortly.”
    The servant bowed again, then padded away.
    “You must stay and eat.” Mr Grimshaw didn’t sound the way Bethan had expected—outraged or disapproving.
    “Is that an order?” Keeping her back to him, she flung the words over her shoulder.
    “More a sort of…plea.” He sounded almost amiable. “There will be no living with Cook if he went to all that trouble for nothing. One of the other merchants might finally succeed in hiring him away from me and that would be a domestic disaster.”
    While Bethan was deciding how to reply, he added, “You see, servants are not without power in my house.”
    She steeled herself against the hint of wry humour in his tone. “All right, then. But only because the food smells so good and because I don’t want to hurt your cook’s feelings. And I have one condition.”
    “What might that be?”
    “I don’t want a nice meal spoiled by carping and quarrelling. If you can’t say something pleasant to me over dinner, don’t say anything at all.”
    “Agreed,” Mr Grimshaw replied after a moment’s hesitation. “You could have driven a much harder bargain than that, you know.”
    He walked around to stand in front of her. “I admit I had doubts about your suitability. But you are wrong to assume I intend to send you back. I fear we got off on the wrong foot today. Is it too late to put that behind us and start again?”
    His firm, determined lips spread into a smile that came and went as swiftly as a flash of summer lightning.Like a bolt from the blue, its potent force jolted Bethan’s heart and made her breath catch.
    Simon Grimshaw wanted to give her another chance? Didn’t she owe him the same after the way he’d come to her rescue? Besides, while she chafed at criticism, she had never been very good at holding a grudge.
    “It can’t be too late already, can it?” She returned his sudden, fleeting smile with one of her own that blossomed more slowly but lasted longer. “We should give it at least a week before we decide we can’t stand each other.”
    Her quip coaxed a bark of rusty-sounding laughter from him. “I agree. We should not become sworn enemies on the strength of anything less than a week’s acquaintance.”
    “Can we start over properly, then,” she proposed, “and pretend like I just arrived in Singapore this minute?”
    He nodded. “An admirable suggestion.”
    “I’m pleased to meet you at last, Mr Grimshaw.” She thrust out her hand. “My name is Bethan Conway.”
    “Allow me to welcome you to Singapore, Miss Conway.” Instead of shaking her hand, as she’d expected, Simon Grimshaw bowed over it. Lifting her fingers, he grazed them with his lips as if she were some elegant lady. “Or may I call you Bethan? I think I might be