Page 2 of Lady Willa's Divinely Wicked Vicar
“Love,” Charlie had answered, “could come in church as well as out of it.” Or he hoped that would be so. After all, he’d had a general introduction to the varieties of male-female attractions. He had experienced lust, a rather risqué but true admission. Most of those incidents, however, had occurred in his callow youth and five times in Spain (yes, he recalled each one vividly) after imbibing more than a temperate amount of poor Spanish red wine.
Now he was thirty years of age and so, he began to doubt love might come his way. In fact, he doubted love in general came to men easily or even clearly. He’d seen men slaver after nubile debutantes and wondered at the attraction. He’d seen others mad to possess another man’s wife, a widow or a doxy from the streets. Charlie had admired a few women for their beauty or their skills at cards. But no one woman had ever captured his imagination with a look or a word…or a quest for understanding. Odd that, but there it was. Thirty and single. Rich in friends and a fine father, but little else.
He grabbed his hat, rose to leave and headed toward the sacristy. Yesterday he’d left the room a mess, vestments scattered about, when Mabel Cummings’s daughter fetched him to the old woman’s bedside. He tidied the room up, had hung up the last robe and readied to go home when he heard someone in the church talking.
So it was with surprise that he found a young woman, head bowed, in one of his pews, her ebony hair an intricate crown upon her head, her long gloved fingers clasped together in plea, as she argued with God.
“I don’t see why you would do this.” She shook her head, her eyes squeezed tightly closed. “It’s really quite unfair, you know. I’ve been very good.”
He put one hand to the curved back of the sturdy oak pew. He should tell her he was here.
“I’ve been virtuous, Lord. Though who wants to be?” She raised her face. “I’d like a man to savor. A true love to climb into bed with. Just like Esme.”
What? Really?Esme Harvey was Viscount Courtland’s daughter. Esme had climbed into bed with…? Oh, this is none of my business!
“As her friend, I’ve stood by her through all her antics.”
Charlie smiled.A boon companion, eh? Well, hell. Ahem. We all need one. Or more!
“To my mother and father, I’ve been respectful. Obedient. Even to the point that now, I cannot be!”
Oh, if she were ready to confess sins, he should really make himself known.
“But you know that if I stop agreeing to marry, they will think me odd. I’mnotodd!” She sat taller and the lovely line of her profile down the long line of her neck to the charmingly generous points of her breasts was a vision that set his pulse pounding. And another part of his anatomy stirred to life too.
He raised his hand to announce himself when—
“I will kill them!”
What? Kill? Who?
“You cannot,” she seethed with despair and dabbed at the corners of her eyes, “you simplycannotbetroth me to another man.”
No. Definitely not.
That hair, that perfect nose, those wonderfully full lips, that throat and those breasts should belong to a man who could savor them…like me. I could. I—
“Why do that then, eh?” She went on, angrier than before, if that were possible. “Why match them to me and then kill them?”
The girl was rather mad, was she? Why would a father and mother kill their daughter’s fiancé? Who was this young woman?
“It’s not fair. Anyone now who wants me will balk. I would! But Papa offers so much money, it’s a sin.”
A man who buys his girl’s husband? Yes, well.Charlie ran a hand through his hair.It happened. Often.Whether it was arranged that way or appeared that way. Money ruled the world.
“And I will not wed at all, if you cannot send me a man who lives and one who doesn’t want me only for my dowry.”
Well.Charlie shrugged. Living was not in a man’s ability to predict or sometimes, control. Each person thought they’d live forever. But they didn’t. Ever. The war had taught him that, when as many died of plague or cold or starvation as cannon balls and gun shot.
“But I will not kill another man.”
Sound thinking.
“So you had better find a way to influence my father about my marriage. I will not be a party to bribery of any poor man.”
Oh, bravo.
“And I will not wed a creature who does not love me.” She shot to her feet. “Madly!”
