After the Frost by Megan Chance

Author:Megan Chance [Chance, Megan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical, Historical Romance
ISBN: 9781936632022
Google: Ks6aSJUYg1IC
Amazon: B004KAB0O6
Publisher: Megan Chance
Published: 2011-01-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The muffled sounds of the tavern filled the silence between them as they stepped outside, a low hum of noise that was somehow reassuring in the quiet darkness. Rand watched as she moved ahead of him to the edge of the porch. She hugged herself as if she were cold. Her breath came in frosty clouds of air.

She stopped at the step. "Where's the wagon?"

He licked his lips, feeling oddly nervous. "I didn't bring the wagon. Just Duke."

"Just Duke?" She turned, frowning, and then abruptly she put it together. He knew the exact moment she realized he'd lied to her. Her expression froze, and her eyes immediately shuttered. "You didn't come to take me home."

"No."

"Sarah's not waitin'."

"No."

She swallowed. She looked at him for a moment, and he saw her struggle to keep her expression even, saw the way she pressed her lips together as if the motion would keep her from saying something she didn't want to say. She hugged herself tighter and turned to look at the canal winding below the hill, a black satin ribbon in the moonlight. "Then why are you here?" she asked, her voice hard and too loud. "If you came to yell at me again, you can just turn around and head back home. I'm not listenin' to it anymore."

He took a deep breath. "That's not why I'm here."

She stiffened. "No? Then why?"

"I came to tell you I'm sorry." The words were out before he had time to think about them, and Rand cursed himself, furious at their starkness. He'd wanted to wrap them up in pretty sentiment, in properly chastened phrases. But now they stood between him and Belle, and he knew he had no choice but to continue. "I didn't mean what I told Sarah—about not being alone with you. I was—wrong. I should have trusted you. I should have believed you. I'm sorry now I didn't."

She snorted in disbelief. "And you think that makes it better, Rand? You think just sayin' you're sorry makes everythin' all right?"

Rand frowned. A twinge of dread crept through him. He wished like hell she would turn around and look at him. "I don't know. Doesn't it?"

"No." As if she'd heard his unspoken wish, she turned slowly to face him. "I don't want your apologies. They don't mean anythin' to me." She took a step backward, tilted her face to look at him, and the moonlight fell across her cheekbone and her jaw, glinted on her hair, and sent her eyes into shadow. But still he saw her expression. It was tight and angry. "Don't tell me your lies, Rand, I don't want to hear them tonight. I know you don't believe a word I say. I know you wish to hell I was a thousand miles from here. Don't lie to me and tell me it's not true. Just don't lie."

Then before he knew it, she was stepping from the porch and hurrying down the rise, stumbling away from him. He stared after her, stunned.

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