Goddess Born by Kari Edgren

Author:Kari Edgren [Edgren, Kari]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Carina Press
Published: 2014-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

An Eye For An Eye

As our two-week wedding anniversary came and went, Henry and I fell into a routine that best accommodated our domestic situation. We dined together in the mornings, after which Henry and Ben would leave to ride through the wheat fields or tend to other matters of business. This took the better part of the day, and we usually did not meet up again until evening meal. Then following an hour of reading or playing chess in the smaller parlor, I would politely excuse myself for bed. By sticking close to this schedule, most days would find us together for less than three hours. Between eating and discussing the many concerns that surrounded so large an estate, I made sure little time remained for more personal relations.

By no stretch of the imagination did I consider this arrangement to be the height of marital bliss. Instead, it was just enough to keep up a good front for the servants while helping Henry and me to avoid any more problematic encounters. Our relationship could have been very different if I were at liberty to love whoever I wanted without sacrificing my gift, but why wish for something I could never have? So, for the time being I was biding by the old Irish saying “far from the eyes, far from the heart”—or some such nonsense.

A silent tension had sprung up between us since our kiss, and while I tried to forget what had happened, carefully regulating the amount of time we spent together, Henry became withdrawn in his thoughts as though weighed down by some great internal struggle. The issue finally came out one evening while we sat in the parlor reading. We sat opposite each other, me on the sofa and Henry in one of the wingback chairs with a book lying unopened in his lap. Feeling his gaze, I glanced up to find him staring at me.

Ours eyes locked for a brief moment. “It is too much!” he said at last, muttering the words under his breath. Setting his book on the floor, he walked over to a small side table to pour a glass of wine, draining the cup in one shot. He then began to pace back and forth across the length of the room. I nearly suggested he take a walk outside, when he came over to the sofa and sat down next to me, much closer than was comfortable.

Our thighs touched, and his warmth just about stopped my breath. Keeping my eyes pinned to the open book in my lap, I silently willed him to get up, or even just scoot over a bit before I stopped breathing altogether. Instead, he reached out and took my hand.

“Selah, we need to talk about the other night.” He ran his thumb along my palm, sending shivers right up my spine all the way to my hairline.

This was the very moment I’d been dreading since the night we kissed, and as usual when taken in a fit of nerves, I started to babble.

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.