The Tainted Love of a Captain by Jane Lark

Author:Jane Lark
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008139841
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-03-08T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Charlie clasped Harry’s fingers as though she was drowning in a river and he was a rope someone had thrown to pull her to safety. All these beautiful, well-dressed people. Wealthy people. Noble people.

What had she done?

This was not a world she should be in.

Why had Harry asked her to marry him?

His father and his eldest brother had taken Harry away within moments and they had not spoken to her or looked happy about Harry’s announcement. They had looked uncomfortable when they’d returned. They did not want her here, they knew her past. But they could not have told anyone else, everyone else had spoken to her. How long would they keep the secret?

Uncle Baba, the children had called Harry. He’d told her about the nickname and that his family had deemed him the naughty one, the one who liked to cause trouble. Had he married her because he wished to contradict his father’s words? He had received the letter and then proposed.

She hung on to Harry’s hand as they followed the servant up another flight of stairs. Their room was at the far end of the hall on that landing. The walls were covered in a paper decorated with green vines and the ceiling had gilded plasterwork.

Harry let her go. She walked further into the room as he thanked the servant, then shut the door.

When he turned, he sighed.

She looked back as she heard it.

‘Now you may breathe, Charlie.’

She did, her lips parted and she drew in a deep breath; she had not even realised she had not been breathing properly.

‘Sorry I left you. But it was better I let John and my father have their say. I knew they would not approve of our rushed marriage.’

‘Do they hate me?’

He walked quickly across the room and held her.

She clung to him, her fingers curling into the cloth of his coat at his back.

‘They do not hate you. It is me they are angry with and the bruise about your eye raises questions. I had forgotten about it myself, but if you think people have been looking oddly at you, you must remember that.’ He let her go and instead held her hands. ‘This is not the wedding day I would have chosen for you. I am sorry. But shall we take a while to recoup? Shall I ring for a bathing tub and hot water?’

She nodded. In this room, she could pretend that it had been like the days in the inns—as it would be again when they left for India. She only needed to survive this intense weight of unworthiness and guilt for a few weeks.

Yet weeks… Days would be easier, but weeks…

It felt as though she was walking along the High Street in her village, when everyone had stared and instead of others doing it, her own mind shouted the names that people had called her and threw the stones that people had bent to pick up and hurl at her.

‘Come back to me,’ Harry said in a quiet voice.

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