Jane Feather by Engagement at Beaufort Hall

Author:Engagement at Beaufort Hall
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

The stilted attempts at conversation finally unnerved Imogen. Charles had made no attempt to ease the situation, merely sitting toying with his port glass, his eyes resting with seeming benevolence upon Imogen. Except that she could feel his mounting irritation like an impending tidal wave building beyond a smooth tranquil shoreline. She dabbed at her mouth with her napkin and tossed the cloth to the table beside her plate.

“If you’ll all excuse us . . .” She pushed back her chair and Charles was on his feet instantly, coming around the table to place a solicitous hand beneath her elbow to help her up. She moved away from him towards the door, which a footman jumped to open for them both.

“Let’s go into the library.”

Charles followed her into the comfortably shabby room, where commodious leather armchairs squatted like old men dozing in their clubs after a good luncheon. He ignored the chairs, choosing instead to stand by the fire, one arm resting along the mantelpiece, one foot on the fender. Imogen debated whether to sit or stand. While sitting would put her at something of a positional disadvantage, it would indicate a composure that she was far from feeling.

She took a wing chair, one in which she could sit upright, unlike the squishy armchairs into whose depths she would sink too comfortably for comfort in the present situation, and regarded Charles with an interrogatively raised eyebrow, waiting for him to speak.

Charles looked at her in silence for a long moment, and it took very strong nerves to maintain her own silence. Finally he said, “I’m not going to accept it, Imogen.”

“Accept what?”

His nostrils flared. He said tightly, “Don’t be obtuse. I am not going to accept this situation. You cannot deny what happened last night—you cannot deny what we feel for each other. And a few hours later you’re stalking out of my house as if I’ve committed some heinous sin. Now . . . no, let me finish . . . I can see that inviting you this morning might have seemed like a trap, but it wasn’t intended as such. I tried to explain that to you. It was thoughtless of me, but no worse than that.”

“As thoughtless, I suppose, as letting me discover accidentally that you’re keeping a mistress and child on the eve of our wedding,” she threw at him.

“Oh, for crying out loud, Gen. I’ll grovel for that if I must.” He ran his hands distractedly through his hair. “Yes, it was thoughtless, criminally thoughtless, if you like. But that was all it was. I don’t have any feelings for Dorothea at all.”

“And that makes it better?” she demanded, jumping to her feet. “You admit to having no feelings for a woman you’d been making love to for at least two years, a woman with whom you have a child. Do you even have any feelings for the child?”

“Oh, now you’re twisting everything on its head,” he exclaimed. “In one breath I’m a dastard

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.