Joan Wolf by The Guardian

Author:The Guardian [Guardian, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2012-12-14T22:24:08+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

“Take the dogs and meet me at the fishing pavilion,” Stephen murmured in my ear as I made my good nights after evening tea had been served.

I left the drawing room without looking at him, and when I reached my dressing room I dismissed Marianne. I was wearing a white evening dress of sprigged muslin trimmed with broad lace over a satin slip, and I simply flung an old riding jacket over my shoulders for warmth and quietly went out the back door with the dogs.

The moon had an odd, greenish look to it that I had never noticed before. Perhaps we will have a storm tomorrow, I thought.

The dogs were surprised when I did not set out on our usual walk to the Ridge but detoured instead around the house to the path that would take us to the lake. Once they realized where we were going, they raced happily ahead of me, darting off the path here and there to check the stands of trees that Capability Brown had scattered so gracefully all over the north lawn. I followed more slowly, searching for something to think about to take my mind off the coming meeting with Stephen.

I thought of this evening’s dinner and of how the presence of my mother and the duke had acted as a catalyst to bring together all the cousins, much in the way we had banded together when we were children.

I had made many acquaintances during the years that I was married to Gerald, but my stepcousins always remained my best friends. We shared that most unbreakable of all bonds, the bond of a common childhood.

An image of Jack flashed suddenly into my mind, Jack and the way he had looked tonight, sitting around the nursery table with Giles and Miss Stedham, laughing and playing cards. Giles’s little face had been bright with happiness.

I had known Jack forever, and I was convinced that he did not have it in him to exploit a child’s feelings for his own advantage. I was furious with Adam for planting such an ugly suspicion in my brain.

Portia and Merlin barked joyfully and began to run toward the pavilion. I looked, and the moonlight showed me the glow of a white shirt on the pavilion porch. I followed the dogs and mounted the wooden stairs. Stephen was leaning on the railing, watching me.

“How did you manage to get here ahead of me?” I asked.

“I slipped out the French doors right after you left us,” he replied.

“Oh.”

He straightened as I approached, and the two of us stood face-to-face on the wooden porch in the strange green moonlight and looked at each other.

“It is driving me mad, being near you like this and not being able to touch you,” he said.

The concentrated passion in his voice struck an answering spark deep within me, but I steeled myself against desire, I said in as cold a voice as I could command, “Whatever was between you and me was finished five years ago, Stephen.

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.