Linnette, The Lioness by Lavinia Kent

Author:Lavinia Kent
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins US
Published: 2011-06-30T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

She was right.

He had never considered it in that light before, but Linnette was right. He had not believed that she would stay with him—or at least that she would wish to. Things might have progressed too far for her to actually leave him, they might have married, might have had a child, but in the end he had always believed she would wish to leave, to have the life she had been born to.

Any remaining anger at her earlier laughter melted to nothing. Neither of them was without fault.

He watched as she bent over the desk, a finger skimming down the column of numbers. She chewed at her lower lip. Her heavy hair was swept up into a swirl of curls leaving her neck bare, the edging of thick lace at the top of her gown brushing against the few tendrils that had escaped.

She tapped a finger on the account book and then turned to him. “You do the addition in your head, with no need of paper to figure.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never been able to do that—not in all these years of keeping the accounts. I always have to scratch, and add, and add again to get the correct answer. I’ve never been able to just do it in my head.”

“I remember.” And he did. He could remember her sitting with her school books before her, pen in hand, trying so hard to find the answer that he could just see—and he’d always admired her for her effort, and for the fact that she always did find that answer, no matter how hard it might be.

“It makes my head ache to try—and it is aching already. It has not been an easy day.”

“No, it has not. You came in wishing to talk. Do you wish to continue?” It was hard to ask when he did not know what he wished. There was more honesty between them at this moment than he could ever remember—but he was not sure he wanted her honest answers. They might reveal too much about himself.

She lifted a hand and rubbed her temple again. “We should. But, no, I do not wish to.”

“Then what do you wish?”

“I wish you would tell me the truth—the whole truth.” She moved around the desk toward him. “No, I do not even wish that right now. I wish a quiet dinner with only a few candles. I wish to sit by a fire, although the afternoon is warm. And I wish to go to my bed early and to sleep the whole night through without a single dream.”

“I cannot grant the last, but I can leave and allow you the first two.”

“No, you mistake my meaning.” She took another step forward. “I wish you would stay and just be with me. No talk beyond the weather and catching up on each other’s lives. Tell me more of your sister and your stepfather and I will tell you of my little niece. Have I told you that Judith has had a daughter? The plumpest, sweetest little thing you have ever seen.

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