Her Heart's Captain by Elizabeth Mansfield

Author:Elizabeth Mansfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497697720
Publisher: Open Road Media

Chapter Twelve

Tris Allenby’s rage lasted only a few minutes. How could he maintain a feeling of anger against a girl whom he’d convinced himself he loved? During the six months of his last voyage—the only one in his life which had seemed unendurably long to him—he’d spent half his days dreaming of her, imagining their reunion, the whirlwind development of their mutual affection, his proposal of marriage, her acceptance, an almost-immediate wedding and a shipboard honeymoon. Now he felt a complete fool. How could he have fallen in love with a girl he hardly knew? How had he deluded himself into believing that she, too, had felt the attraction? What did he know about love anyway?

During all his adult years he’d known only a sailor’s sort of intimacy with women—brief, unemotional alliances with the lightskirts and trulls one finds at seaports and anchorages the world round. But love itself was still very much a mystery to him. This ignorance in a man of thirty-five was probably a sign of serious emotional retardation, even though his mother would undoubtedly find excuses for him in the fact that, in the hectic activity of the wartime Navy, he’d never had an opportunity to develop long-standing relationships with the proper sort of women. But excuses notwithstanding, his ignorance was a real handicap to him now.

However, he was not so ignorant that he couldn’t see that Jenny Garvin had no liking for him. She wanted nothing to do with him. She couldn’t even bear to have him near. The realization was painful—more painful than he’d dreamed possible—but he’d not commanded warships in battle without learning how to face and deal with painful truths. She didn’t want him; that was the beginning and the end of it. There was no point in prolonging his agony. He’d tell his mother, as soon as he returned to Clement Hall, that the time had come to take their departure.

He was so depressed at the disintegration of his dreams that it was several minutes before he became aware of the little pinpricks of ice which were stinging his face. Sleet was coming down heavily. Already the fields were pebbled with little white pellets. He shook himself out of his lethargy and clucked at the horses; the roads might well be covered with ice before he reached Wyndham.

But what about Jenny? he asked himself with a start. She must still be standing back at the crossroad. He hadn’t noticed a single carriage pass him by. No one had come for her. Good Lord, she must be half frozen by this time!

For a moment, injured pride kept him from turning the curricle, but even while he hesitated he knew he would go back for her. She’d repulsed him, true, but he couldn’t let her stand unsheltered in the sleet. He turned the horses, whipped them up to the fastest pace possible on the rutted road and hurried back.

His first glimpse of her gave him a shock. She was standing in the middle of the road, her back to him.

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.