A Whisper of Disgrace (Sicily's Corretti Dynasty #05) by Sharon Kendrick

Author:Sharon Kendrick [Kendrick, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction, Contemporary Women, Contemporary Fiction, Series, Harlequin Presents, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Genetic Engineering, Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 9780373131761
Amazon: B00BZPJQDQ
Publisher: Harlequin Presents
Published: 2013-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

SHIVERING FROM HIS sudden departure from the bed and from the new coldness in his eyes, Rosa met Kulal’s accusing gaze.

‘Your mother slept with your uncle?’ he demanded in a voice which was icy with disbelief.

‘Yes.’ She tried not to flinch, thinking that it sounded even worse when it came from someone else’s lips. And Kulal clearly thought so too, because his face had frozen into a sombre mask. ‘But this is terrible!’ he flared. ‘I have rarely heard anything more shocking.’

‘You think I don’t know that?’ she questioned. ‘You think I wouldn’t give everything I owned for it not to be so?’

‘Is this not incest?’ he questioned, almost as if he was speaking to himself.

‘No! No!’ And to Rosa’s horror, she burst into tears. All the tears she’d been bottling up ever since her mother had blurted out the horrible truth now came spilling out. She hadn’t dared to give in to the danger of crying before, terrified that once she started she might never stop. She had needed all her energy and her strength to get away from Sicily and the dark web of deceit which had been woven into her life for all these years. But now that the tears had begun, they seemed unstoppable. They slid down her cheeks and onto her breasts, dripping from the prominent curves to fall in a growing damp mark on the pristine linen sheet. ‘I d-don’t know what it is, but it’s not that,’ she declared raggedly. ‘My mother and my uncle were not related by blood.’

‘But they were related by honour!’

‘Yes, they were!’ She glared at him, wiping away the falling tears with a clenched fist. ‘Don’t you think this has been difficult enough, without you, a complete stranger, getting on your high horse and taking the moral high ground?’

‘But I am not a “complete stranger,” Rosa. I am your husband!’

His words seemed to bring her to her senses and she shook her head. ‘But only as a symbol,’ she whispered. ‘As an expedient measure which suits us both. You’re not a real husband, Kulal—and a marriage of convenience doesn’t give you the right to stand in judgement of me, especially when this was something which was completely out of my control.’

For a moment there was a silence. Kulal stared at the fierce set of her lips, as if she was determined not to cry again. And he saw something in her which he recognised with a painful twist of his heart. Something he had buried so deep that he had almost forgotten its existence but which was now reflected in Rosa’s tearstained eyes. It was powerlessness, yes, but it was anger too—that in a single moment, your life could change for ever. For him, it had happened when his mother had scrambled up a rock to go to the aid of her trapped child. For Rosa it had happened when her mother had looked at her husband’s brother with lust in her eyes.

Damn the past, he thought viciously.

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.