A Day for Love by Mary Balogh

Author:Mary Balogh
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

He wondered at what exact moment he had fallen in love with her. When he had first seen her walking along the driveway behind her son? When he had held her and soothed her at the lake? When he had danced with her and she had stepped on his foot and giggled like a girl? When he had kissed her?

Or perhaps there was no exact moment. Perhaps all his encounters with her, few though they had been, had contributed to his knowledge the morning after that kiss that he loved her.

Or perhaps he did not love her at all, he thought. Perhaps it was that he was lonely and that he had recognized her loneliness and responded to it. Perhaps it was nothing more than that.

But Lady Eve could soothe his loneliness. Any number of women who would be only too eager to receive the addresses of a wealthy viscount and heir to a marquess could soothe his loneliness. And yet with Lady Eve, with all the other guests at Durham Hall, he felt lonelier than he had for the previous two years.

No, it was not just need that drew him to Lady Barbara Hanover. It was Lady Barbara herself. There was a quiet maturity about her, an acceptance of life, an absence of bitterness despite the cruel treatment she had received at the hands of fate, an inner strength. Those qualities drew him like a magnet. And her beauty. And the slender, graceful body.

She was as different from Anna-Marie as it was possible to be. Anna-Marie had been tiny and fragile and timid and adoring. He had realized long before that his feelings for her had been as much paternal as loverlike. He had wanted to shield her from the inevitable clutches of death. He would have gladly died for her if he could. But he had loved her and always would.

And now he loved Lady Barbara Hanover. Except that he had no business loving her. He was a guest at the home of the Duke of Durham, and the duke did not even publicly acknowledge her. He himself was there on the understanding that he was Lady Eve’s suitor, and she obviously had every intention of having him. It would be awkward to do nothing about developing that relationship after all. It would be impossible to choose her elder sister instead.

And he had insulted Lady Barbara horribly the night before. Kissing her like a gauche schoolboy and losing his head as soon as his lips touched hers. Allowing the kiss to become intimate and suggestive. Touching her, fondling her through the thin fabric of her dress. Wanting her.

God! How much more insulting could he possibly have been? It had been as if he were telling her that he considered her a woman of easy virtue merely because she had once loved too well and too unwisely. He should never even have called on her at that hour of the night.

What must she think of him? He had felt her need.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.