A Rose For A Rogue by Collette Cameron

Author:Collette Cameron
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: 0
Published: 2018-11-17T22:00:00+00:00

Three evenings later, Eden sat in a rocking chair outside the cottage entrance. Eyes shut and hands folded in her lap, she sighed and slowly tipped the chair back and forth. The rhythm had always calmed her. Mama said it was so even when she’d been an infant.

Weary to her marrow, she slowly opened her eyes.

A cough rattled in her chest, and she covered her mouth with her handkerchief lest Mama hear.

She’d not felt well since her tumble into the stream, and today, she’d been alarmed to realize she burned with fever. There was no time to be sick. No funds to hire a doctor either.

The black pepper and honey tea she’d been drinking seemed to help a bit, as did the thyme tea she’d brewed.

Three days of sorting and packing, only taking what was essential had proved more difficult than she’d imagined. Daily trips to Newberry seeking employment had proved futile and a sense of panic assailed her, knotting her stomach and keeping her awake at night.

Jane had tearfully explained she couldn’t afford to hire Eden, but she’d offered to let her and Mama a small chamber for a fraction of what they generally charged. Even so, there was food to buy and Mama’s medicine, and without a source of income, Eden would soon run through her small savings. Jane wouldn’t permit pets either.

If Eden had to give up her beloved Mr. Wiggles and Acorn too, she very well might fracture.

Each business she’d approached had given her the same answer. She offered no real skills or talents, and their pitying smiles or averted glances shredded her remaining pride. On the trek home yesterday, she’d burst into tears and cried, great gasping, heartbroken sobs into Peony’s sturdy warm, wonderfully horsey-smelling neck.

Eden couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried like that.

Yes, she could.

When she’d been sent off to boarding school.

The same helplessness enshrouded her now.

She put a hand to her forehead where a headache had nagged for days.

She stopped rocking.

Lord Sterling had not put in his promised appearance.

She told herself to stop listening for a carriage or horse, to cease glancing out the window a hundred times a day. And yet, a tiny ridiculous hope remained that he’d come.

Her unlikely knight to the rescue.

She shouldn’t feel this intense disappointment.

He’d made the impractical, gallant offer out of pity. Once home, he’d no doubt realized the impossibility of retaining her as his secretary. Hopefully he planned to hire Mattie and Old Ronald. And to move the chickens and bees to Perygrim. She also meant to ask him if he would consider taking Peony. She wasn’t a beautiful high stepper, but she was sweet and gentle.

A flush of embarrassment infused her. She’d imposed upon him more than she had any right to, given their short association. Perchance that was the reason for his absence—she’d overstepped. Another wave of hot humiliation bathed her.

She had been reduced to beggary.

Just as Simon and Candace had accused her.

Eyes brimming once more, Eden scanned the peaceful horizon as she dashed away the moisture blurring her vision and coughed again.

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.