The Rogue's Return (CR 12) by Beverley Jo

Author:Beverley, Jo [Beverley, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9781101210581
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2006-03-07T08:00:00+00:00

“But . . .”

“I can, I believe, afford rags for my wife. I’m not rich, but I’m not a pauper.”

“You don’t know the meaning of rich and poor. You have no idea!”

“Oh, don’t I? Hal’s laying out most of the money for this journey.”

She opened her mouth to score a point, but he quickly added, “But I’m not so poor that my wife needs to launder her monthly rags.”

“And your wife’s not so foolish that she’ll throw money away!”

They glared at each other, but then Simon asked, “What are we arguing about?”

She straightened. “I’m sorry. I get short-tempered at this time.”

“And I’m impatient with pain and frustration.”

“Didn’t you sleep well?”

“I don’t think I’ve had a decent night’s sleep since the duel. I’m not complaining, given the perils I’ve avoided, but it’s wearing.”

“I have some laudanum. Playter forbade it because pain would keep you still, but surely your ribs are mostly knitted by now.”

“It’s tempting,” he said. “Perhaps too much so. My friend Lord Darius is apparently addicted to opium because of being given too much for too long when injured.”

“A dose of opium to help you sleep is scarcely the same thing.”

“No, but the pain is easing.”

She couldn’t insist, so she went behind the sheet and fixed her pad in place. “I’m sorry for being a fishwife.”

“Simply a wife. I rather like it. Marital bickering and apologizing. We’ve had no chance to be a normal married couple, have we? Imagine if we’d married in England in the usual way—we might never have had a time like this. I’d have my valet, you your maid. We’d have separate bedrooms and dressing rooms and only see each other at our best.”

Jancy tied the waistband of her drawers.

The usual way. Would they really have to live separated by servants? She didn’t want to be slave to some haughty maid who knew far more about fashion than she did.

When she was dressed, she emerged from behind the sheet. “I’ll get Treadwell for you.”

She put on her cloak and gloves and went on deck. She’d once traveled toward a wilderness that had proved to be not at all as wild as she’d thought. She could only pray that the luxury at the end of this journey would be not so grand. Simon’s descriptions of cheerful, crowded Brideswell didn’t fit with the cold, servant-ruled life he’d outlined. He must have been teasing her.

She found Treadwell and then sat in Simon’s chair to watch the forested shore flow by. Trees, trees, trees. Habitations were few, though an Indian in a canoe glided by at one point, ignoring their existence. What had this land been like when lightly populated by people and without the complexities that Europeans took for granted?

Then an eagle circled, plummeted, and rose with a flapping silver fish in its talons. It had been wild, and still was.

She shivered in the nippy air, out of sorts. She should have expected her monthly, but now she was realizing that there’d be another visit halfway across the ocean.

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.