Annette Blair by Holy Scoundrel

Author:Holy Scoundrel [Scoundrel, Holy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

How easy it would be to marry him as he wanted and become Bridget’s mother in truth. Easy but wrong for all of them, especially Bridget.

Marriage should be founded on truth, not face-saving falsehoods.

She should not have run back; she had a stitch in her side, and her stomach was doing flips. Lacey raised her hand when Mac started to speak. “Yes, the dolt found me. How thick can he be?”

“Verra thick, our vicar. Why don’t you just tell him the truth, that t’was his bairn you carried?”

“You know?”

“I was your nanny; I saw the eyes you had for him, the love shining in them. Nick, the scamp, no. Gabriel the new vicar, aye. He was yours; and after a time, verra much yours.I could have named the father of your wee one, but it was not up to me.”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” and Lace had no sooner said it than she was, right over the back porch rail, wretchedly ill, just in time for Gabriel to round the corner.

He went inside and returned with a cool towel for her neck, a chair for her to sit, and a cup of weak tea for her to sip. He stooped down before her to watch the color return to her face.

He was handsome and robust with dark curly hair and shoulders as wide as the double gothic doors of his church. And if she’d have him, pitfalls and all, he could be hers for life.

He might mistake her returning color as a sign of physical wellness. But it was her embarrassment at this public humiliation of hers riding her.

“I think you should lie down,” Gabriel said.

“I agree.” Mac ushered her past him and up the stairs, removed her dress, and covered her with a quilt Gabriel’s mother had stitched. “You gonna tell himself this time?”

“I don’t have anything to tell.”

Mac scoffed. “He doesn’t think he’s half good enough for you, my girl. That’s why he believed your story about Nick. Nick has a title, so Nick is good enough to have fathered you child. Do you not see? It has nothing to do with trust on Gabriel’s part, but his unworthiness.”

“He should have known that my love for him was so great that I could never have— Oh, bother. Your logic is giving me the headache to go with my stomachache.

“That’s no stomach ache and we both know it.” Mac’s chuckle as she left the room carried a hint of delight.

Soon enough Gabe paced next door, and that’s the sound that nearly lulled Lacey to sleep. He was worried about her, but he would let nothing happen to her . . . unless the choice was taken from him. Like with—

“Oh!” She sat up. Could he fear her as ill as Clara had been?

Well, they would know soon enough, one way or the other.

This would be so simple if he would stop forgiving her for Nick and realize that there was nothing to forgive.

To the sound of his pacing she finally slept, until she woke in time for church the next morning.

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