Belle (The Daughters of Allamont Hall Book 2) by Mary Kingswood

Author:Mary Kingswood [Kingswood, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sutors Publishing
Published: 2016-07-22T05:00:00+00:00

14: A Retreat

Burford sipped his port thoughtfully, listening to the conversation round the table, but saying little. The talk was all of hunting and horses and other gentlemanly pursuits, which his income would not permit even if he had the inclination. He had enjoyed riding when his father had supplied him with a mount, but he had never hunted and he found a brisk walk in fine weather to be every bit as pleasurable, especially when the brisk walk led him to Allamont Hall.

And here guilt gnawed at him. Until recently, there had been only one attraction at the Hall, one person whose red lips and bright eyes drew him again and again, one person who filled his dreams and his thoughts. But lately those dreams had begun to recede a little. When he imagined himself sitting opposite his wife beside the fire, there was a different face smiling at him.

He understood why. That day when he had gone to Garmin’s Farm and come back to find Belle still in his book room, sitting on the floor quite oblivious of the time, he had taken her into the back room and fed her bread and cheese. They had sat either side of the fire, just as in his silly little daydream, and now he could not imagine Hope in that place, only Belle. Instead of Hope’s delicate features, he saw Belle’s plainer face with those big eyes and the mouth that smiled so readily. Instead of Hope’s imaginary chatter of domestic matters, he heard Belle’s voice reading a poem, and saw her finger stabbing the page, her expressive face alive with energy. His little vision of Hope was quite gone, replaced by the stronger image of Belle, which had really happened.

Burford was not a foolish man, nor an impulsive one. He saw his danger, and determined to step back from the precipice. In other circumstances, in a different time, perhaps he could have allowed himself to fall in love with Belle. It would have been easy enough to do, for she was such an open person, amiable and friendly, and what could be more natural than to share their passion for books? In the easiest way imaginable, that would lead to other passions and thus to marriage.

Yet he must resist her allure. Hope was his true love, he told himself, the woman he desired above all others to make his wife. So when the gentlemen rejoined the ladies, he sought out Hope at once. Her face was pale as she looked up at him beseechingly, and he could almost imagine that she had been crying. If only he could brush away the last trace of tears from her cheeks, could take her in his arms and kiss her until she could barely breathe. She was so pretty, so sweet, so gentle, he hated to see her unhappy and it broke his heart to be the cause of it.

“M-M-Miss Hope? Will you take a turn about the room?”

He was rewarded by the widest of smiles.

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