Kleypas Lisa Gamblers 3 Against The Odds (Where's My Hero)

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with child and couldn't move around very quickly.
If Ned was a bad person because he would run to escape a waddling pregnant woman, then so be it.
His peace of mind was worth it.
Finally, he was ashamed to admit, there was Lydia.
He groaned. In three days' time, Lydia Thornton would be his wife. And while there was nothing
particularly wrong with her, the time he spent in her company was all awkward pauses and looking at the
clock.
It wasn't what he'd imagined for marriage, but it was, he had come to accept, all he could expect.
He'd spent the last eight seasons in London, a charming man about town, a bit of a rake, but not so
much that nervous mamas steered their daughters away from him. He'd never consciously avoided
marriage well, not in the last few years, anyway
but at the same time, he'd never met any woman who inspired passion within him.
Desire, yes. Lust, most certainly. But true passion? Never.
And so as he approached the age of thirty the practical side of his mind had taken over, and he had
decided that if he wasn't going to marry for love, he might as well marry for land.
Enter Lydia Thornton.
Twenty-two years of age, pretty blond hair, attractive gray eyes, reasonably intelligent and in good
health. And her dowry consisted of twenty acres of very nice land that ran right along the eastern border
of Middlewood, one of the Blydon family's smaller estates.
Twenty acres wasn't much for a man with family holdings scattered across the south of England, but
Middlewood was the
only property that Ned could truly call his own. The rest belonged to his father, the Earl of Worth, and
would until he died
and passed the title on to his son.
And while Ned understood that the earldom was his birthright and privilege, he was in no hurry to
assume the rights and responsibilities that went with it. He was one of the few men in his circle of
acquaintances who actuallyliked his parents;
the last thing he wanted to do was bury them.
His father, in his infinite wisdom, had understood that a man such as Ned needed something of his own,
and so on Ned's twenty-fourth birthday, he'd deeded over Middlewood, one of the earldom's unentailed
properties.
Maybe it was the elegant house, maybe it was the superb trout pond. Maybe it was just because it was
his, but Ned loved Middlewood, every last square inch of it.
And so when it had occurred to him that his neighbor's eldest daughter had actually grown old enough to
marry well, it had
all seemed to make perfect sense.
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Lydia Thornton was perfectly nice, perfectly dowered, perfectly attractive, perfectly everything.
Just not perfect for him.
But it wasn't fair to hold that against her. He'd known what he was doing when he'd proposed. He just
hadn't expected his impending marriage to feel quite so much like a noose around his neck. Although in
truth, it hadn't seemed so wretched until
this past week, when he had come to Thornton Hall to celebrate the upcoming nuptials with his and
Lydia's families. Not to mention fifty or so of their closest friends.
It was remarkable how many complete strangers could be found among such a group.
It was enough to drive a man mad, and Ned held little doubt that he'd be a candidate forBedlam by the
time he left the
village church that Saturday morning with his ancestral family ring firmly ensconced on Lydia's finger.
"Ned! Ned!"
It was a shrill female voice. One he knew all too well.
"Don't try to avoid me! I see you!"
Bloody hell. It was his sister, and if all went as it usually did, that meant that Emma would be waddling
along behind her,
ready to offer her own lecture as soon as Belle paused for breath.
And good God come tomorrow his mother would be in residence to complete the terrifying
triumvirate.
Ned shuddered an actual physical shudder at the thought.
He spurred his horse into a trot the fastest he could manage so close to the house planning to move
into a full-fledged gallop once he could do so without endangering anyone.
"Ned!" Belle yelled, clearly unconcerned with decorum, dignity, or even danger as she came running
down the lane, heedless
of the tree root that snaked out into her path.
Thud!
Ned closed his eyes in agony as he drew his horse to a halt. He was never going to escape now. When
he opened them,
Belle was sitting in the dust, looking rather disgruntled but no less determined.
"Belle! Belle!"
Ned looked past Belle to see his cousin Emma waddling forward as fast as her rather ducklike body
would allow.
"Are you all right?" Emma asked Belle before turning immediately to Ned and asking, "Is she all right?"
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He leveled a gaze at his sister. "Are you all right?"
"Areyou all right?" she countered.
"What kind of question isthat?"
"A rather pertinent one," Belle retorted, grabbing onto Emma's outstretched hand and hauling herself to
her feet, nearly
toppling the pregnant woman in the process. "You've been avoiding me all week "
"We've only been here two days, Belle."
"Well, itfeels like a week."
Ned could not disagree.
Belle scowled at him when he did not reply. "Are you going to sit there on your horse, or are you going
to dismount and
speak with me like a reasonable human being?"
Ned pondered that.
"It's rather rude," Emma put in, "to remainon horseback while two ladies are on their feet."
"'You're not ladies," he muttered, "you're relations."
"Ned!"
He turned to Belle. "Are you certain you're not injured in any manner?"
"Yes, of course, I " Belle's bright blue eyes widened once she discerned his intentions. "Well, actually,
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