Menfreya in the Morning by Victoria Holt

Author:Victoria Holt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Published: 2011-03-18T03:31:54+00:00

I felt the relief breaking over my face.

I heard myself cry, "Oh yes, oh yes ... please"

I was driven to Bevil's small town house in a quiet little cul-de-sac on the north side of the park. Here Lady Menfrey remained with me. There were only two servants—a maid and a housekeeper who cooked the little which Bevil had needed in the past The place was merely the pied £ terre he had acquired since he became a Member of Parliament,

Lady Menfrey insisted on my going straight to bed, for she declared I was exhausted, even if I didn't realize it. I was submissive; I found it the utmost luxury to put myself into the hands of this kind and gentle woman, particularly as Bevil was making every effort to show me how anxious he was on my behalf.

We talked little of the tragedy, but of Menfreya; and Lady Menfrey said that it was Bevil's wish—and hers—that as soon as the inquest was over I should return with them to Menfreya to recover from this terrible shock.

Fervently I told them that there was nothing I should like better, nothing I needed more. So it was arranged.

Thus I lived through those days that followed the tragedy; they were long, dreamlike days, but because I saw Bevil frequently and was constantly in the company of Lady Menfrey, whose main idea seemed to make me feel as though she was as concerned for me as she would have been for a daughter, 1 felt I had something to cling to, and she was the best companion I could have had. She was still serene, she, the heiress who had been kidnaped by Endelion and who had fallen in love so romantically and then been forced to adjust her

Victoria Holt

137

romantic ideas and learn to live with a man who could never be faithful and whose irresistible passion had been not for her but for her fortune! But here she was, beautiful still, with a different beauty from that of the Menfreys—calm, classical features, gentle, kindly and, could I say, resigned. The result, doubtless, of a life of compromise and adjustment to the wild ways of the Menfreys, who although they were worldly and perhaps selfish and mercenary—for Menfreya—were the most charming people in the world.

And there was Bevil, so anxious for me, so eager that everything should be done for my comfort, tender, in a manner which conveyed to me a suppressed passion. His hands lingered on my arm, his eyes were caressing, and about him there was an ah* of waiting which seemed to me significant. It was as though I were already engaged to marry him. I was certain that I should soon be. Lady Menfrey conveyed it in her manner, and when she spoke of Menfreya she spoke of it as my home.

That was how I lived through those days of tension when the Menfreys sought to impose on an image of tragedy one of living happily ever after.

They succeeded, and I

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.