Something Shady by Pamela Morsi

Author:Pamela Morsi [Morsi, Pamela]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Romance, Western
ISBN: 9780515116281
Google: uOfCsFLENKgC
Amazon: 0515116289
Goodreads: 692915
Publisher: Jove
Published: 1995-07-01T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Twelve

"It's going to be so much fun," Claire assured her aunt as she hurried Gertrude along behind her. "Candlelight croquet is simply a different game altogether. It's terrific!"

Gertrude's very definite lack of enthusiasm went completely unnoticed, as Claire's own attention was focused more adroitly upon a very different game.

She had so much on her mind. It was, Gertrude surmised, as if her thoughts were a gallon and her mind was only a quart-size pitcher. She had hoped to spend the evening hiding away in her room, pretending that she was writing. She would have to pretend. Her real life was suddenly so much more exciting than what she had planned for her characters, she could hardly give a thought to Weston, Alexandria, and Carlisle Place. But even if she couldn't hole up another evening, alone with the thrill of her own thoughts, the last thing she wanted to do was to play a friendly game of croquet. Especially not with the Stefanskis.

After their talk under the hazel tree, Gertrude honestly didn't know how she would even look the man in the face again. She had agreed to engage in some kind of scandalous "time out of life" with him. She wasn't sure exactly what sort of immorality was to be involved, but she knew that it was something shady.

"I really am quite tired this evening," she had insisted to her niece. "I think you should simply go alone."

"Unchaperoned?" Claire asked with feigned horror. "I couldn't."

"Don't be silly, Claire," her aunt replied tartly. "You and Teddy have spent time alone together since you were children."

"Yes, but we weren't getting married then," Claire said.

The young woman gave Gertrude a long hard look that her aunt couldn't interpret and was too churned up to even worry about.

"You do remember that we are getting married?"

Gertrude's expression sobered and she deliberately showed what she hoped was loving concern. "There is really no hurry."

"Oh, but I can hardly wait."

"But you must wait, dear," Gertrude insisted. 'Time changes things for people. What you think you want when you are young is often not what you can live with as you grow older."

Claire's expression was unfathomable. "I don't intend to change my mind," she told her aunt emphatically. "When I set my mind on a thing, you know how I am about following through. It would take a reason of enormous proportion to get this idea out of my head."

Gertrude's face was lined with worry. But only a minuscule part of that concern was for her niece's happiness. Her own heart was pounding like a tom-tom. Dwarfing any fears for the exuberant young woman at her side was Gertrude's anxiety at seeing Mikolai Stefanski again.

She had thought three days ago under the fading cover of the bountyless hazel tree that she was ready to reach out to life. She was ready to take chances. That she, Gertrude Barkley, was ready to engage in a grand passion. One that she had dreamed about for seventeen years.

Since that moment, however, sheer terror had overtaken craven curiosity.

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