Fortune's Flower by Mary Ellen Boyd

Author:Mary Ellen Boyd
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2014-10-19T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 16

Verbena‘s ears buzzed, and she feared for a brief moment she was going to faint. He had said the words twice and they still did not make sense. Marry him?

Marry Damon? Become his wife? Walk right into the Thern family, like a lamb to the slaughter?

Keep Roderick?

Kind as Damon had been to the children – and herself – she could not get past the stories Edeline had told these past days. Verbena forced herself to breathe around heavy pain of the empty space where her sister had been.

She pulled her hands free. Small warm spots remained where his lips had been. “I won’t marry into your family. I can’t.” Her chest hurt. “I gave my word to Edeline, I would keep him safe from you – your family.” She had not meant to lump him in with his family, but neither could she separate him. “I know what they did. They never accepted my sister. She was never good enough. Which means I will never be good enough. Julius and Matthew and the girls will never be good enough.” Verbena forced herself to take a quick breath. “I appreciate the offer, but I will follow her instructions. Her whole purpose was to keep her child safe.”

“Safe?” He closed in on her, moving forward slowly like a prowling cat. Despite herself, she kept retreating until her back was against the nearest shelf. He braced his hands on either side of her head. His swarthy face was so close she could see the fine lines pain had etched around his dark eyes. A swath of black hair fell across his forehead and she had to clench her hands in her skirt to keep from reaching up to push it back.

Verbena stood straight, even though she knew how easily this latest burden could be the one to break her. How badly she wanted to trust him. She was tired, so tired, and afraid of the very things he had just put into words, worries she had had for months but had shoved away.

“Safe?” He repeated the word. “Verbena! Sometimes I don’t understand you. Edeline was living with a relative who it seems barely knows her, in a house your aunt does not even keep warm enough for a baby. And now you are going to take this baby back to your home? I wish there was a way to say this without giving offense, but you were living one step away from the poorhouse, with a drunk for a father. What will your father do when the baby cries at night? Do you think I did not see the girls trying to stay out of his way? And you would bring my nephew to that?”

Verbena flinched. He was right. Father would not want another mouth to feed, however tiny. And with such connections available?

“You don’t trust my family.” He straightened, and she took a breath. Her teeth began to chatter. She did not know if it was from the cold in the room – he was right about that – or the fear that dogged her.

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