The Misbegotten Misses by Elle Q. Sabine

Author:Elle Q. Sabine [Sabine, Elle Q.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Erotic Romance Fiction
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
Published: 2019-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

Gloria stood outside Clare’s closed study door, hesitating. Astrid had brought her gowns, and it had been a relief to slip off Clare’s dressing gown and be attired again in her own clothes. Astrid had shaken her head and muttered at the fumes coming from the old widow’s weeds Gloria walked in daily. She sighed, knowing that she’d never again walk Shore Road without an escort, at least not for a year or more, so she gave in graciously and instructed Astrid to dispose of the old gown rather than clean it.

She’d spent a pleasant few hours with Eynon while Mrs Pitcher, Astrid and the housemaids from the Castle organised and settled their belongings. It had done her soul good, she thought, to cradle and talk to the little man. She hadn’t spent enough time with him since Clare had come into her life, and it was time for that to change.

A niggling voice at the back of her head reminded her of all the night-time hours she could spend with Clare, if she just pushed on the wall between them…

Gloria shook her head. She’d been attracted to him from the first, and he was an honourable, fine man. But their earlier discussion had confused her. He’d teased her a bit, cared for her and walked away without looking back.

It disturbed Gloria in a way she didn’t understand.

Now, though, Eynon slept. Her rooms were a chaotic mess of silks and velvet and slippers and scarves. She’d walked the gallery after sending Colman off to settle his own things with the assurance that she wouldn’t try to leave the keep.

Gloria had stopped and stared at the happy woman with a tiny boy on her lap who hung in a place of honour near the duke’s chambers.

She knew the portrait was Clare’s wife Sarah and their son, because of its similarity to the one in his study. They had been painted about the same time, when Sarah had not been much older than Gloria was now.

Sarah was a pretty woman, but more important to the portrait was Sarah’s contentment. She had been painted with the babe in her lap, and the pair were looking at each other, delighting in what they shared. Of course the artist could have painted Sarah in whatever manner he’d wanted, but there were other duchesses and duchesses-to-be on the walls of the gallery. None had seemed to belong in the Castle garden with the keep looming behind them more than Sarah.

Gloria had never been satisfied with her life, not honestly. Oh, she could make the world think she was carefree, she’d done her share of vivacious flirting. But Gloria was quite sure she’d never actually been happy.

Had Sarah? Or was she dissembling in the portrait? Was any woman ever truly at peace?

Heaving a great sigh, Gloria shrugged. Abigail was happy. Fiona was not. Genevieve was definitely discontented. Her mother? Her mother had always seemed melancholy to Gloria, but then perhaps the tragedies of her lifetime had simply been too much.

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