Page 16 of A Wicked Game

“You sound like a spectator at the Roman Colosseum, watching gladiators fight to the death.”

“You can’t deny the similarity. The matchmaking mamas are quite as determined to catch their quarry. All they lack is tridents, nets, and swords.”

Prudence shot Morgan a sly, speculative look. “You’re still unwed, Captain Davies. Willyoube looking for a wife now you’ve returned to these shores?”

Harriet heard a collective gasp from the gaggle ofwomen on the opposite side of the fern as they strained to hear his answer.

And then her heart stopped in her chest as Morgan’s gaze slashed back to hers.

“As it happens, Ihavedecided to look for a bride now that I’m back, Miss Prudence.”

Shock held Harriet immobile. She couldn’t have been more surprised if Morgan had declared himself Tzar of Russia.

Aunt Constance gave a triumphant little crow, but Morgan wasn’t finished.

“But I’m sure many women would scorn to be a sailor’s wife, only seeing their husband every few months during shore leave.”

“Some mightpreferan absentee husband,” Prudence countered drily. “They’d get financial support without the inconvenience of actually having to live with a man. Messy, careless creatures, the lot of you.”

Morgan, laughing, didn’t take offense.

“You do have your occasional uses too.” Constance twinkled naughtily. “I’m sure you’ll make some lucky young woman an excellent husband, Captain Davies.”

Morgan raised his voice. “Do you think that’s true, Miss Montgomery?”

Prudence and Constance both turned and caught sight of her lurking behind her fern. They beamed in welcome and with a reluctant sigh Harriet stepped out from its protection and joined them.

“Do I think what’s true?” she asked, just to be perverse.

“That any woman would be pleased to be a sailor’s wife?”

“I do not.” She sent Morgan a superior glare. “An arrangement like that would not be my idea of a happy marriage.”

He lifted his brows in challenge. “And whatisyour idea of a happy marriage, Miss Montgomery? Do tell.”

Put on the spot, the only thing Harriet could come up with was the truth.

“I’d want to be necessary to someone. As necessary as a map to a sailor. I’d want him to be lost without me.”

Aunt Constance cocked her head to the side. “I say, that’s a lovely idea, Harriet.”

Harriet sent her a grateful smile, even as her cheeks heated in embarrassment. “My own parents were like that, according to Father. He and my mother shared a passion for numerous subjects, as well as for each other.”

“You should be considering marriage too,” Aunt Prudence commanded, with all the tact and subtlety of a sledgehammer. “You have plenty of choice.” She turned to Morgan. “Every fortune-hunting cad in London’s after her now she’s rumored to have an inheritance.”

Was there anything so mortifying as one’s relatives?Harriet prayed for the floor to open up and swallow her whole. Sadly, fate did not oblige.

She risked a glance at Morgan and found him trying, unsuccessfully, to hide his mirth at her discomfiture.

The beast.

“There’s no denying my dance card is fuller than in previous seasons,” she said stiffly. “But I’m quite aware of the reason for my sudden popularity. Most of those gentlemen never gave me a second glance before news of the gold came out.”

Morgan’s lips twitched. “Oh, they gave you a second glance, Miss Montgomery. And a third. But they were looking at you as someone to bed, not wed.”

Harriet’s mouth dropped open at the impropriety of his words, but Prudence and Constance just chuckled indulgently.

Morgan raked her with a head-to-toe glance that made her blood heat to a slow simmer. “Now,however, you’re the winning lottery ticket. Beautiful, rich,andunmarried. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a stampede.”

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