Upon a Midnight Dream by Rachel van Dyken

Author:Rachel van Dyken
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 1477590803
Publisher: Astraea Press
Published: 2012-05-26T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast

—Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Stefan awoke with a crick in his back and an all around horrid premonition that today would not be a good day. For one thing, when he went to see to Samson, he discovered his horse had been busy all night eating. And was now moving slower than normal.

Rosalind had awoken looking fresher than a spring flower. He had every intention of asking her to marry him. Of waking her with flowers and sonnets, things she deserved. That he wanted to give her. But, after he saddled Samson, it was discovered that both Alfred and Mary were missing.

Imagine his surprise when he caught them both leaving the stables at the same time. Mary with straw in her hair, and dare he say Alfred with more pomp in his step than he had seen in all his years.

His mind didn’t allow him to think about what had been transpiring between the two, though he had a notion to scold them for being so….careless. Then again, that could have been jealousy talking.

He’d never woke so physically wound with desire. It made matters much more difficult than he could imagine now that he realized his heart was very much involved. Unable to decipher between his lust and suspicions of love for the woman, he found himself incapable of making sound decisions. So he rode the carriage in silence, all the while watching Rosalind for any indication that she was thinking of him too. Instead, she stared out the window as if the cursed horizon was the most interesting thing she’d ever set eyes on.

Out of curiosity he looked, but saw nothing save the snow and dreary country side.

Was he not better to look at? Curse his pride that continued to go missing on such occasions!

Finally, as a last resort, he reached across the carriage and grasped Rosalind’s hand, much to Mary’s disgust. He hadn’t time to even enjoy the feeling of her feminine hand because he was too blasted busy watching Mary while she continued to thump her cane. Sweating profusely by the time they reached the townhome, he was never more thankful to be done with a carriage ride in his life.

****

Rosalind’s hand continued to tingle long after Stefan released it to help her out of the carriage. Odd, her mind was more focused on the simple object of his hand more so than her mother’s sickness. But to be quite honest she hadn’t been focused on her mother at all. Not now, and not last night when she was alone with the very man she had been turning down for the past three days.

Sighing, she looked to Mary for strength, but she was already on her way into the house, Stefan’s valet close behind. Odd, Alfred appeared to have straw in his coat?

Rosalind shook her head and continued her journey up the stairs into her home; she hadn’t been back in London since her father’s death.

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