The Rival by Brenda Joyce

Author:Brenda Joyce
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Olivia dressed with great care for supper. Arlen had told her that they had a guest. She paused, seated in front of her dressing table, a wave of nausea overtaking her. She could not think of Arlen now without wanting to wretch.

He had not, in the end, raped her. He had been incapable of the act. But he had tried, and when he had failed, Olivia had seen the hatred in his eyes. She had thought he would hit her again or, worse, strangle her to death. Instead he had stormed from her room.

Olivia opened her eyes, glimpsed her expression in the mirror, and continued to tremble. No amount of rouge could put the color back in her face, and no powder was thick enough to cover the dark circles under her eyes or the garish bruise on the right side of her face.

She lifted one hand. The gown she had chosen was a pale lilac silk, and the cuff was ruffled. The ruffles hid the bruises on her wrists.

It could have been worse. She could have actually been raped—and then there would be the chance of conceiving another child. But such logic failed to comfort her. She had been grossly violated, and she was still ill. How could she endure her marriage now? She could never withstand such an assault again. She did not know what she would do if Arlen attempted to exercise his marital rights another time.

It occurred to her that she might procure a weapon for herself and keep it nearby. To defend herself.

Leave him. The words overcame her, echoing loudly in her mind, not for the first time. Yet Olivia knew Arlen would not let her leave him. He would hunt her and Hannah down. She had been up all night thinking about it. But she also knew that she and Hannah could not remain in the marriage, not after last night. Her heart lurched with sickening force. She did not know what to do, how to escape.

Mama! Hannah’s frightened cry as she had stood in the doorway while Arlen held her down on the floor echoed through Olivia’s mind. She trembled more violently, recalling the sight of her terrified daughter standing on the threshold of her bedchamber in her pristine white nightclothes. For the first time in her life, she thanked God that her daughter was blind, that she had not been able to see what Arlen had been doing.

Mama! What is he doing to you?

Olivia would protect Hannah at all costs, which meant she must sever her connection to Garrick De Vere. Her obsession for him had brought her to this predicament, and it had, in the end, done more than gravely disrupt her marriage. It had hurt her daughter. Her daughter had witnessed the dark underside of life, and Olivia was determined that she never have such an experience again.

Disaster would befall them all. This was a disaster, and the proof was neither her bruises, her fear, nor her daughter’s fear, but the terrible pain in her heart.

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