Wanted: Lawyer (Silverpines Book 8) by Josephine Blake

Author:Josephine Blake [Blake, Josephine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JB Publishing
Published: 2018-06-12T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Victoria ignored Luther as he ambled clumsily into the kitchen, still holding on to the walls for support. She was standing at the sink, scrubbing their lunch dishes with a brutality that suggested that each delicate china piece had done her a great personal wrong.

“Will you speak with me?” he murmured.

She ignored this too. What good would it do to attempt to explain herself? The whole of Silverpines thought that she had gone mad and she could not see how Luther’s reaction to discovering that she had not left her home for months on end would be any different than anyone else’s.

“Victoria?” His voice was low and warm. It did not sound accusatory. It was full of a concern that she did not feel she deserved. How many other women had lost their husbands in the Silverpines disasters? Not only their husbands but their fathers and brothers as well. What right did she have to shut herself away from the world when they had to force themselves to go on living in it?

“I do not wish to discuss the matter any further,” she stated. She tugged a fresh towel from the kitchen drawer and reached for the dripping plates. But his hand came down on top of hers. He had stood and reached across the counter to halt her jerking movements.

“Will you please explain to me,” he said slowly, his blue eyes searching for hers. “Why the matter of visiting the bank is so very distressing to you? Do you not wish to discover who is behind all of this?”

“It is not—I cannot simply—” her eyes were darting all around the room, carefully avoiding Luther’s piercing gaze. “It is not a matter of—”

“Victoria,” Luther stepped around the counter and grasped her shoulders once more. “Tell me what is wrong.”

She felt shame coloring her tone as she whispered. “I cannot make it to the bank. I have not been able to travel more than a few steps outside my home since the disasters. The world shakes… My vision blurs… I cannot breathe…” she trailed off, remembering the sick panic that had filled her each time she had attempted to leave her home. She was staring at the floor, afraid to look up into Luther’s face. Terrified that his eyes would confirm what she had suspected all along, that she had slipped into a state of utter madness that could not be undone.

When he placed his finger beneath her chin and tilted her face up to his, she closed her eyes briefly before meeting his gaze. She bit her lower lip, and then looked at him.

He was smiling at her. It was not a mocking smile, nor was it sarcastic. His lips had pulled up in the corner in a characteristically kind expression.

“It is all right to be afraid,” he said. “But the world is not such a terrifying place, Victoria. There is no reason to shut yourself away from it.”

He was very close to her now. She could feel his warm breath on her cheeks.

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