The Unexpected Child by Kate Walker

Author:Kate Walker [Walker, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9780263801095
Google: tyz7MZMPey0C
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 1534384
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1997-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

‘GOOD evening, Mrs Donellan. It’s bitter out, isn’t it? You must be glad to be home. I’ve lit a fire in the sitting room, so it will be really cosy in there.’

‘Thank you, May—I’ll appreciate that.’

If there was one thing that brought home to her just how her life had changed in a few short weeks, Natalie reflected as she surrendered her coat and hurried into the firelit room, it was this, the regular evening routine.

In the past, after work she would have gone home to a cold, dark house, the silence seeming to echo round her as, usually still wearing her coat, she struggled to get some heat out of the old-fashioned solid-fuel boiler before starting on the preparation of a quick, simple meal. But these days she was picked up at the school gates in the chauffeur-driven car Pierce had insisted on putting at her disposal, knowing she didn’t drive herself, and transported to the haven of warmth and light that was the Manor.

Here, she was greeted by the housekeeper—her mother’s replacement—who had already prepared a tray of tea and sandwiches to tide her over until the time that Pierce came home, when a delicious, beautifully prepared dinner would be served in the elegant dining room.

The contrast with her previous way of life couldn’t be greater, Natalie acknowledged, pouring herself a much needed cup of tea and sinking back into one of the huge chintz-covered armchairs, kicking off her shoes with a sigh of relief. But the trouble was that she couldn’t appreciate it properly. It simply made her feel more ill at ease than ever. It wasn’t for her, it was for that alien creature, Mrs Pierce Donellan, wife of the lord of Ellerby Manor.

But she was Mrs Pierce Donellan, even if she found it impossible to believe. She didn’t seem to have been able to draw breath for a moment since Pierce’s proposal—though ultimatum was a more accurate description. Since then she felt as if she had been lifted off her feet by a whirling tornado, flung high in the air and dropped down to earth again to find that nothing was the same.

‘But does it have to be so soon?’ she had protested when, the day after she had agreed to marry him, Pierce had announced that the wedding would be in a week’s time, just ten days before the end of the Christmas term.

‘I can see no point in delaying.’

His arrogant dismissal of her concern had been further evidence—if she had needed any—of how little she actually figured in his plans. He wanted his child, and the way to ensure he got what he wanted was by staking a legal claim to it and marrying the baby’s mother as soon as possible.

‘The sooner this is official the better as far as I’m concerned.’

‘But I haven’t—’

‘Everything’s arranged—all you have to worry about is finding something to wear and turning up at the church on time.’

‘The church! I would have thought that the registry-’

‘Well, you thought wrong.

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