Perfect Bride_The - De Warenne 10 (2007) by Brenda Joyce

Author:Brenda Joyce
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Man-Woman Relationships, Regency Fiction, London (England), Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Historical, General, Love Stories
ISBN: 9780373772445
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2007-01-02T08:00:00+00:00

BLANCHE RUSHED into her bedchamber, trying to remind herself that he had not refused her yet. But she remained terribly shaken. Worse, an actual tear tracked down her cheek—his reaction to her offer hurt so much.

“My lady!” Meg cried in shock. She was kneeling before the hearth, taking the old ashes out.

“I am fine,” Blanche lied, smiling so brightly it hurt, too. “Really!”

Meg stood, stunned.

Blanche covered her face with her hands. “My offer dismayed him—enraged him, really—and I hardly know why.”

“Oh, come sit down,” Meg cried, taking her to the closest chair.

“He did not refuse me, actually. He is considering my offer of marriage.”

“I am so sorry! I thought he loved you…shows you how much I know.”

“Sir Rex did not act like a man in love, or even a man fondly disposed toward me.” Blanche sat. “I must be frank. I fear a rejection. He is going to reject me!” And pain lanced through the vicinity in her chest where her heart lay.

“Let me get you a cup of tea,” Meg said, sounding angry herself now. “You do not need such rudeness, nor such strain.”

The words were barely out when Blanche felt that knifelike pain in her head. She cried out, clasping her hands to her ears.

“My lady!”

Blanche didn’t hear her; she couldn’t. She balled up over her knees, unable to breathe, the pain blinding.

The monster appeared, but his face had become that of a thin, gaunt, angry man—with bitterly high cheekbones and a bony chin, and he leered—his eyes wide, wild and hate-filled.

“I’ll get Sir Rex!”

Blanche couldn’t speak. The monster was drawing the knife slowly from her skull. She began to breathe deeply and harshly, as the pain lessened, until only a slight shadow of it remained. She straightened, trembling and aghast.

And now, the monster had a face.

I don’t want to remember anymore, she thought. Her stomach lurched—she realized she might vomit.

And then she realized what Meg had said—and where she was going.

A part of her wished for the safety of Sir Rex’s presence, another did not. That proud half won. She leaped up and ran into the hall. “Meg! Come back! I am fine!”

Meg was about to race down the stairs. She hesitated, her face ashen.

Blanche began breathing more normally. “Come back,” she said firmly. “The episode is over.”

Meg returned fearfully. “My lady, you are ill.”

She wasn’t ill, Blanche thought. It was far worse than that. Her worst fears were coming true—she was remembering details from the riot.

She was almost certain that man had been the man, or one of them, who had murdered her mother.

She tensed in dismay. Her mother had died from hitting her head while falling. She had not been murdered. She did not know why she had just thought such a thing.

She somehow smiled. “Dr. Linney is right. It is just the onset of a migraine. I am hardly the first woman to suffer from a headache. There is no need to worry.”

But even as she spoke, she recalled the devastating encounter with Sir Rex.

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