A Seductive Offer by Kathryn Smith

Author:Kathryn Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2002-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

“So why haven’t you told your wife about what happened to you after Miranda’s death?”

Brave lifted his head, the fingers of his right hand twirling the white queen from the chessboard by the window where he stood. “Because it’s none of her business.” He was very tempted to tell Phelps it was none of his either.

Dr. Phelps’s smile said he had expected that answer. “But she is your wife.”

Brave stopped twirling the queen and studied her cool ivory features.

“She is my wife in name only.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth. “There is no reason to tell her anything.” He set the queen and her assessing gaze upon the chessboard, and turned her so he couldn’t see her face.

“You don’t think she’d understand?” The physician’s voice drifted over his shoulder. Brave didn’t have to see the man’s face to know that Phelps already knew the answer.

He didn’t turn. Instead, Brave clasped his hands behind his back and fixed his attention out the window. Staring at the village roofs in the distance, he replied, “No.”

Rachel would understand all too well his desire to save Miranda. It had been much like her own desire to save her mother. She would probably even understand how that affected his desire to help her. What she might not understand was his failure. A woman as determined as she might have trouble understanding how Brave had let Miranda slip through his fingers.

And he did not want her to know that he’d refused Miranda his help when she did ask for it. He would rather almost anything than that.

“Tell me again how you think helping her get her mother away from this abusive husband will make you feel better about your own life.”

Behind him, Brave heard Phelps scratch his quill on a sheet of paper. He must have a whole book of notes on him now.

“Balance.” A cloud of smoke rose from one of the distant chimneys, reaching for Heaven even though it would fade into nothingness long before it made it that high.

The scratching stopped. “Balance?”

Brave glanced over his shoulder. All he could see were the other man’s boots. “I couldn’t save Miranda, but if I save Rachel, then maybe I’ll be even.”

More scratching. “And what happens if you are not able to help your wife?”

Yes, what then? Staring out at darkening sky, Brave shrugged. “I don’t know. The scales might tip farther, or perhaps just the fact that I tried will be enough.”

“But you don’t want her to know?”

“No.” His shoulders were tensing again.

“And you don’t think she’ll make any further attempts to discover the nature of our relationship?”

Remembering the hurt expression on Rachel’s face when he told her not to waste her concern on him, Brave shook his head. The image would not leave him.

“No. I don’t think she’ll ask any more questions.” Lord knew he was good at putting distance between himself and others.

“Let’s talk about something we haven’t discussed in a while.”

Brave turned. Phelps sat in an armchair, his legs crossed, ink on the table beside him.

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