Blackmail by Penny Jordan

Author:Penny Jordan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2012-03-22T20:59:41+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Lee had just finished writing to Drew, telling him that their engagement was off. She could return his ring as yet because Gilles still had

it. In her letter she had explained that she had

fallen in love with someone else. No need for him to know of her marriage to Gilles; that was

not something which could be told in a letter.

Soon it would be time for the vintage; already the grapes ripening in the hot August sun, while a harvest of another kind grew slowly inside her.

She had known within a week that she was pregnant, and after the first initial shock had come a sweet piercing pleasure that she was carrying Gilles' child; a child conceived on that one night of elementai fusing. She touched her stomach gently. As yet only the most discerning person could tell that she earned a child. It was there in the faint rounding of her stomach and the fullness of her breasts; the slightly altered shape of her face, but that was all. She had been sick several times in the morning, but because Gilles slept, in the dressing room and left the chateau long before she was awake in the morning he did not know. And that was the way she wanted it to stay. For the child's sake Gilles might insist that they continue the marriage, and her heart starving for his tenderness, overburdened with her love for him. Could not endure that. Another month and she would be gone, and her secret with her. She had become very dreamy, spending her afternoons lazily in the South Tower, dreaming of her child's birth.

Soon the grape pickers would be with them, students in the main, and casual labour, and Lee had already gone over the dormitories above the stables and garages to check that everything was in order for their arrival.

Jean-Paul drove into the courtyard in a battered Citroen one sultry afternoon when Lee was catnapping in her room. Although the baby had as yet made scant difference to her figure, already she was beginning to feel tired.

'It's the baby!' he yelled excitedly when Lee went downstairs, awoken by the noisy disturbance of his arrival. 'I've taken Marie-Therese to the hospital and I came here to ask Gilles if he could lend me Henri until the baby arrives. Our grapes are ready for picking, but if I am not there to supervise. . .' He shrugged, meaning (hat with the cheap labour which was all he could afford the grapes could be spoiled by ignorant careless hands if he was not (here on hand.

'I'm sure he will,' Lee said impulsively. 'He's in the cellar, I think, inspecting last year's wine-They think it's ready to be bottled. I'll come with you, Jean-Paul,' she added on impulse. After all, wasn't she knowledgeable enough about wines merit an inspection of Gilles' treasured cellars?

The cellars stretched endlessly beneath the chateau; huge stainless steel vats standing ready' to receive this year's harvest; casks containing the previous year's

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.