To Claim the Long-Lost Lover by Jude Knight

Author:Jude Knight [Knight, Jude]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jude Knight

* * *

Sarah had to acknowledge the point. In fairness, she should admit to her body’s response. It bothered and confused her. In seven years, she had convinced herself that her memory of their reaction to one another must be false; that she was, by nature, cold, for she had met many attractive men since she entered Society, and none of them moved her in the slightest.

She heated to melting point when she saw him on the other side of a room. Standing so close, her hands in his, it was taking all the discipline she had to keep from draping herself over him and demanding that he did something about the fire he had ignited.

Uncle James! They had been standing here almost embracing. What must her uncle think of her? But when she looked around for him, he was nowhere to be seen, and the door she had left open behind her was closed.

“Sarah,” Nate said, “I am willing to court you, to give you time to know me again. I was prepared to walk away, if that was your choice, though it would be like tearing my heart out all over again. But what of Elias?”

It is because of Elias that I must be sure. Sarah tried to pull her hands away, but he held on, firmly but gently. She couldn’t think of anything to say except, “You know.”

“I only found out about him this evening, when my father tossed the fact of his existence at me as an argument against you. He thinks you are covering up the sins of your sister, but as soon as I heard, I knew.” His fingers relaxed and his jaw firmed. “Did you not intend to tell me?”

This time, she did pull loose, and turned away to hide her flush. “I wanted time.” Time to find out if this new harder version of the boy she had loved would be kind; to find out if Nate could be trusted.

It seemed they were truly married, which increased the risk. As Sarah’s husband and Elias’s father, he had every legal right to take his son. She could trust her family to fight for her freedom if she found marriage to Nate unbearable, but in that case, she would lose Elias. She could not imagine Nate had become brutal enough that the courts of England would not find in his favour if they fought over custody.

She chanced a glance back at him, to see how angry he was, and was disarmed by his thoughtful nod. “You wanted to protect our son. I can respect that. I am not a danger to him, dearest heart, nor to you. I will give you the time you need to find that out.”

He rubbed at the back of his neck. He used to do that when he was much younger, when he was deeply moved and concerned, and trying to hide it. “You have been looking for a husband this Season, they tell me. Were you looking for love? Or for a companionable marriage?”

Sarah noted the past tense but didn’t challenge it.

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