Rich Radiant Love by Valerie Sherwood

Author:Valerie Sherwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-12-19T05:00:00+00:00

“Mismanagement, I think,” he told her frankly. “Two calves had died. Mulvaney, the tenant, met us half drunk, startled to see us. I had a feeling he'd drunk himself into a stupor one evening and left the calves shut out of the barn all night and wolves had gotten them. He must have waked at the noise and driven the wolves off but the bodies were half eaten. Mulvaney claims it was done after they died, but I could find no sign of disease.”

“You think the Irishman lied?”

“Yes. But—” he hesitated. “It’s lonely up there and Mulvaney has no wife, and it could be this was a warning to him and the only time he'll forget about the stock. If he keeps on in this way, he won’t make it. He’ll get drunk at the table and fall across it and his fire will go out and he’ll freeze to death some cold night.”

Georgiana shivered, but she did not want to think on death just now—she wanted to think on life, and all it meant to her.

“Is he good-looking?”

“Who? Mulvaney?”

“Of course, who else?”

“I suppose so. Wild-looking and unkempt because—”

“Because there’s no woman to set him straight,” she smiled. “Undoubtedly.” His features relaxed into a grin.

“Perhaps we should have sent Linnet up there with you,” she suggested pertly. “She seems to be pining away over something and she has a marked predilection for handsome men!”

“I’ll remember that next time,” he said ironically. “If there is a next time.”

They had reached the house now and as they went inside, Brett tossed his saddlebags to Wouter and picked Georgiana up in his arms again. “It’s good to be home,” he said indistinctly as he nuzzled her throat.

“Put me down,” gasped Georgiana, wriggling in his grasp. “It’s undignified. Wouter—”

“Has tactfully disappeared,” said Brett. “See for yourself.”

A glance around the hall told her that this was so.

“But there are other servants who might pass by and see!”

“Let them see,” he said calmly. “For I’ve been gone these two days past and I’ve missed my wife and I’ve a mind to take a nap before dinner—with my wife. In fact, it’s all I’ve thought of for the past hour!” He was striding down the long hall toward the stairs with her as he spoke. “What’s happened while I’ve been gone—aside from the butchering?”

“Oh, nothing much. The trammel broke”—she was speaking of the chain that held pots suspended over the fire—“and cook near had apoplexy until the blacksmith fixed it. Two Indians came by with a brace of turkeys apiece and I paid them in wampum—I can't get used to it, using beads for money. And we fed them crullers and they went away happy. Which reminds me, there’s cold turkey in the larder. Would you like a bite? What with rendering the lard, supper will be late, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t try to distract me from my purpose.” He leaned down and rubbed his stubbled chin playfully against her cheek, causing her to start in his arms as he took the stairs two at a time.

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