Wagers Gone Awry by Collette Cameron

Author:Collette Cameron
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2015-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

Wagers gone awry at the gaming table turn friends into foes and lovers into enemies.

Wisdom and Advice - The Genteel Lady’s Guide to Practical Living

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Four days later, wrapped once again in the tattered throw and wearing her gray gown, Brooke leaned against the barn and gazed into the far pasture. Blast, but she wished she could call Ravensdale, the rakehell, out for his scurrilous declaration.

Whirring wings and vibrant plumage announced a cock pheasant’s taking wing. A refreshing breeze teased the loose curls framing Brooke’s face and set the blushing pink cuckoo flowers bordering a marshy patch to swaying. The morning sun’s rays caressed her upturned face.

She would freckle.

She didn’t care. Let her fair skin turn bread crust-brown and wrinkled as a crone’s.

A few minutes ago, Mabry had let the dappled black-and-white newborns into the paddock for the first time. They explored the thick green grass, never straying too far from their mothers’ sides. Occasionally, a frisky calf approached another curious baby, and they’d frolic a few minutes, butting heads and kicking up their heels, before a soft, maternal moo had them skipping to the safety of their anxious parents.

Buford had sired fourteen calves, including a set of twins.

Fourteen, four, or forty, it mattered not.

Not anymore.

There would be no more calves bred at Esherton. At least not beneath her watch.

Most of her hard-earned notes lined Doctor Wilton’s pocket, and the rest would soon follow as he returned daily to check his patients’ progress. Despair unlike Brooke had ever experienced sank its ruthless talons into her fragile heart and her little remaining hope, tearing them into lifeless shreds.

Two evenings ago, after the magistrate had finally arrived and attempted to question him, Duffen suffered another seizure and lapsed into unconsciousness. Doctor Wilton didn’t expect him to survive until nightfall, which meant she’d never know why the servant attacked the earl. Perhaps a misguided notion about protecting the women had coiled, serpent-like, around his fragile mind until the pressure meshed reality with delusion.

She shut her eyes against the disturbing image of him lying, frail and frightened, on his narrow cot. People would do all manner of reprehensible things when driven by desperation. To protect those they loved. She’d already forgiven Duffen for the harm he’d caused, but suspected hard-hearted Lord Ravensdale never would.

No, not hard-hearted. Distant and reserved more aptly described him. An impenetrable shell encompassed the earl. Except his keen eyes. Emotions glittered there, most of which stripped her bare, leaving her vulnerable and uncertain. Yet, she yearned to find a way through his hard exterior, to see if, as she suspected, the man within was warm and caring.

He’d suffered a serious concussion and wasn’t permitted anything more strenuous than lifting a fork for a week. His alarmingly brief consultation with the magistrate had Brooke fretting about what they’d discussed. The doctor admitted he’d told Lord Ravensdale that, had his injury been any lower, his lordship would likely have died.

God. Brooke opened her eyes, blinking several times to focus in the glaring sun.

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