Romancing the Scot (The Pennington Family) by May McGoldrick

Author:May McGoldrick [McGoldrick, May]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-11-14T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Grace wiped the rain off her face as she hurried through the house. She’d escaped him again. A coward she wasn’t, though she was certainly acting like one. Her father would be ashamed of her. This was not the way he’d brought her up. These were not the values Daniel Ware instilled in her.

Hugh and her father were so different, and yet so much the same.

This week, during the hours spent with Jo, she’d asked questions of the viscount’s past. His military service. Where he’d served. The positions he’d held. He and her father were both cavalry officers. Grace could count a dozen instances where the two men had fought on opposing sides in the same battle. For more than a few of those, Grace had been traveling with him. She’d been in the French camps, doing what she could to tend to the injured or lend support to the wives who’d followed their husbands on the campaigns.

Jo shook her head as she’d told Grace about Hugh’s wife. She could not understand why Amelia had taken the young child with her to the edge of that conflict. Grace didn’t try to explain, but she understood. She had seen and cared for so many like her, French women who even accompanied their husbands into the smoke and mud and carnage of the battlefields. Love made women do it. One’s own safety mattered very little when the man you cherished was marching headlong into danger.

Grace had become one of those women. Her deepening feelings for Hugh surprised her and taunted her. Thoughts of him filled her every waking hour. She saw him in her dreams. But what tore at her now was the need to tell him the truth. She knew how painful it would be to leave him after.

She stabbed at fresh tears as she ran up the stairs. Stopping at her door, Grace paused and stared down the hallway beyond her own rooms. Amelia’s suite. Jo told her how Hugh had kept those rooms just as they were when his wife and son were alive.

After eight years, he still loved her and preserved her memory. What Grace shared with him was nothing more than a flirtation. She pressed a hand to her chest, feeling the pounding drum of defeat.

Confessions were only words, she told herself. She couldn’t continue playing this game of fox-and-seek. Perhaps once she told him everything, she wouldn’t have to wait any longer. Hugh would be happy to send her away.

Grace’s gaze was drawn to the closed door of Amelia’s rooms again. She also needed to make peace with a departed soul who was still alive in spirit. Death was never the victor when someone was truly and eternally loved.

Taking a deep breath, she moved down the hall.

* * *

Grace had seen him. Hugh was certain of it. And then she’d run away.

Well, he wouldn’t have it. Whatever sadness had ensnared her, Hugh decided he had a right to help her through it if he could. He wouldn’t have her here under his roof and feeling as forsaken as she appeared.

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.