Forced Offer by Gloria Gay

Author:Gloria Gay [Gay, Gloria]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Historical
ISBN: 1931391904
Google: LvjwPQAACAAJ
Amazon: B004QGYX34
Barnesnoble: B004QGYX34
Goodreads: 2111327
Publisher: BookLocker.com
Published: 2001-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Belinda stayed in her room the following day until the maids came to clean it and returned to it when they had finished. In the interval she went to the library and found that this room was seldom used by anyone, for Lord Berrington used the study for conducting the estate's business.

Belinda found a fair collection of the classics in the library and the small comfort that a retreat of sorts provides for an aching soul.

Sitting on the window seat for almost an hour with the curtain drawn she lost herself in her unhappy thoughts.

She realized now the full force of her deed. Irene's stinging words had exposed it raw like nothing else had. Her marriage was an appalling selfish act and she was now reaping the bitter harvest. She realized that by forcing the earl to marriage against his will she had brought catastrophe on the Berringtons. They considered her an interloper who had forced herself into their family through shameful means. They neither wanted her nor welcomed her. They might put a polite mask on their faces and a veneer of civility on their speech to greet her but Irene had put their thoughts and feelings into words.

Lord Berrington was a gentleman, and had come to her defense the night before, but he not followed this with words of comfort to her during the long dreadful night, which followed. How she had yearned for a word of comfort from him even though she knew she would never get it.

She had lain alone in the huge four-poster bed, tense and sleepless, and engulfed with the horror of her life, feeling that she was within a vice grip.

Feeling light-headed from not having slept the night before, Belinda returned to her bedroom and sat at the window, staring out at the tops of the trees beyond, and at the clouds above Winterhill forest. She dozed off and reclined her head against cushions and was awakened by Bessie asking her if she were going to go down for luncheon.

She told her she wasn't hungry in an almost inaudible voice.

"I'll bring something up, mum, just in case I can coax you to eat something." Bessie had already been told that Lady Berrington hadn't touched her food at dinner save for a couple of spoonfuls of soup.

Being of a sunny disposition, Bessie had already made friends among the staff, who had also informed her in hairy detail of the scene that had been enacted in the dining room the night before.

How could she go down to dinner tonight, thought Belinda, when she could hardly keep the tears from filling her eyes? She would be unable to hold them for long, and her humiliation would be complete as a tableful of strangers stared at her without the least bit of sympathy.

And she knew with freezing certainty that everyone at the table would by then know of the drama that had been enacted the night before.

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