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Chapter 57
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My Mother’s Choice Chapter 58
His tone was dry. ‘Very well. You do not prefer my brother to the workhouse. And where do I stand? My brother thinks I’ve spent ten years in the fleshpots of Europe without learning to appreciate a beautiful woman when I find one under my own roof.’‘Beautiful?’ The word echoed in her mind.‘Gwen.’ He smiled and touched her lip. ‘There is a statue in a Paris museum, of a Greek goddess. I visited her often, since the sight of her made me want to climb the plinth and lick the marble.And when you stand in the doorway with the light illuminating your body, I detect a startling resemblance.’‘Oh.’ She squirmed under his weight.‘Am I making you uncomfortable?’‘No,’ she murmured.He released her wrists and slid off her body to lie beside her, his hand resting on her hip so that she could feel the warmth of it through the fabric.‘Of course, you have many other qualities that I find admirable.’‘Really?’ She suspected that he was teasing, but was at a loss as to why.‘You have a quick wit a
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 59
Gwen stared up into her husband’s face as he sat before the fire, sipping his port. Evenings were her favourite time of day, when the house was putting itself to bed and the day’s duties were done. She thought back to how worried she’d been, when the silences between them had seemed so oppressive.As time passed, and they’d found happiness, the silence had grown richer than words. He could sit for hours staring into the fire, but now he smiled instead of scowled, and closed his eyes, at peace with her and with himself. And she sat beside him, dozing with her head on his shoulder or in his lap, while he stroked her hair.She hated to break the silence tonight, but it was time, she thought, to ask the things she wanted to know. And it would be better now, when he was relaxed and happy, than waiting until he might be less receptive to her. ‘Authur?’‘Yes, my love.’‘There is something I would ask of you.’‘Anything, My Lady. Anything for you.’She sighed. ‘I am not so sure if you know wh
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 60
‘What are you doing here?’ She tried to keep the quaver out of her voice.‘Waiting for you.’‘How—?’‘—Did I come here? How did I get in?’ He smiled, and it was the same cheerful grin he’d used to woo her. His tone,was light, but the glint in his eyes was deadly serious.‘It is not so hard, once you have the keys. Mrs Martha still hates you, you know. But she was always quite fond of me. She’s working at an inn on the main road. When you let her go, you should have thought to ask for the second set of keys. She was most forthcoming with them when I wanted them.’‘And what—?’‘Do I want from you? Why don’t you stop asking questions and let me finish, Gwen. For that is what I want. To finish the business between us.’‘There is nothing between us. We are finished, Archie.’Her voice gave lie to the words.His held the same annoying confidence. ‘I beg to differ.We are finished when I say we are finished.’She turned to grab for the door handle and saw, out of the corner of her eye, the p
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 61
And suddenly the connecting door burst open and Authur strode into the room. There was a look of murder in his eyes.‘I can explain,’ she began.‘You don’t have to explain. I can guess what happened,’ he growled. ‘Stand aside.’ His eye on the pistol, he stepped in front of her. ‘Keep out of the way, My Lady. Go into my room and wait for me there. This will be over soon enough.Archie, get down off the bed and let us settle this once and for all.’‘Authur, no.’ She tried to step in front of him, but he pushed her back. ‘I will not leave you.’ Not while St John still held his pistol and her husband stood before him unarmed.‘Brother, I didn’t expect you so soon.’ Archie arms opened wide and he smiled as he swung his feet off the bed.Authur’s eyes followed the pistol as it veered off target.‘You invade my house and force yourself into my wife’s bedchamber and do not expect that I will find you? The servants have been warned. If they value their jobs, they will tell me of your presence.
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 62
Gwen looked down the table at her husband as she had done so many mornings in the past six months and smiled.He was reading his mail, and when he sensed her eyes upon him he took the letter before him and slipped it to the bottom of the stack and out of sight.‘Is there anything interesting in today’s post?’ she asked pointedly.‘Hmm.’ He looked down at his mail and pretended ignorance, but she could see the smile playing at the corners of his lips.‘Something that you don’t want to tell me about?’His smile broadened to a grin. ‘Not yet, anyway.’‘Some part of the great holiday surprise you’ve promised me. No,’ she corrected, ‘have taunted me with for weeks without revealing anything.’‘That would be the definition of surprise, would it not?Something I know which you do not. And which I will reveal to you soon, even though it is still a week to the holidays.’‘How soon?’‘Very soon. Today, perhaps.’‘If I am very good?’His eyes darkened as he gazed down the table at her. ‘You are
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 1
‘I do not have much time left’. His mother extended her frail fingers from beneath the bedclothes and patted the hand that he offered to her. Authur Grand, Third Duke of ThornHill, kept his face emotionless, searching his mind for the appropriate response. ‘No.’ His tone was neutral. ‘We will, no doubt, have this conversation again next week when you have recovered from your current illness.’‘Only you would use stubbornness as a way to cheer me on my deathbed.’And only you would use death as a manipulative tool to get me do what you wish’. He left the words unspoken, struggling for decorum, but glared at the carefully arranged scene. She’d chosen burgundy velvet hangings and dim lighting to match heralready pale skin. The cloying scent of the lilies on the dresser gave the air a funeral heaviness.‘No, my dear son, we will not be having this conversation again. The things I wish to tell you will be said today. I do not have the strength to tell them twice, and certainly will not be
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 2
He closed his eyes and felt the chill seeping through his blood. He did not want to imagine his brother as a duke any more than he wanted to imagine himself chained to a wife he has no feelings for and starting a family with her, trapped in this tomb of a house. There were enough ghosts here, and now his mother was threatening to add herself to the list of grim spirits he was avoiding.His mother gave a shuddering breath and coughed. He offered her another sip of water and she cleared her throat before speaking again. ‘I did not offer you as a sacrifice, however much pleasure you take in playing the martyr.I suggested that she and the girl visit. That is all. From you, I expect a promise. A small boon, not total surrender. I wouldask that you not turn her away before meeting her. It will not be a love match, but I trust you to realize that in this time and age, love in courtship does not guarantee a long or a happy union. If she is not deformed, or ill favoured, or so hopelessly stu
My Mother’s Choice Chapter 3
The front door was large and intimidating, and when she started knocking loudly, Gwen Lewis was surprised that thesound was barely louder than the hammering of the rain on the flags around her. It would be a wonder if anyone heardher knock above the sound of the late summer.When the door finally opened, the butler hesitated, as though a moment’s delay in the rain might wash the stepclean and save him the trouble of seeing to her.She was afraid to imagine what he must see. Her hair was half down and streaming water. Her shawl clung to her body,soaked through with the rain. Her travelling dress moulded to her body, and the mud-splattered skirts bunched betweenher legs when she tried to move. She offered a silent prayer of thanks that she’d decided against wearing slippers or hernew pair of shoes. The heavy boots she’d chosen were wildly inappropriate for a lady, but anything else would have dis-integrated on the walk to the house. Her wrists, which protruded from the sleeves o
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