All for One by Cruz Melissa de La

Author:Cruz, Melissa de La [Cruz, Melissa de La]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780525515883
Amazon: 0525515887
Goodreads: 40614146
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Published: 2019-04-16T07:00:00+00:00

14

Marital Issues

The Hamilton Town House, the Hamilton Bedchamber

New York, New York

August 1785

That night, Alex sat up with some papers concerning the Reynolds case, while Eliza, who was perhaps thinking about her footman’s reading more than she did, began cutting open the pages of her novel. A pair of lamps on the bedside tables were all that lit the room, casting the bed in a glow of light while its corners receded in shadow. Normally Alex loved this time of night, ensconced between the four pillars of the matrimonial bed with Eliza’s beautiful face relaxed in sleep beside him. Tonight, though, the sound of her paper knife slitting the folio into individual pages seemed to saw through his concentration, and the letters on the page he was trying to read danced in the flickering glow of the lamps.

Eliza sighed. Alex recognized it as the sigh of someone who wanted to talk. Perhaps more to the point, it was the sigh of someone who was oblivious to the fact that her companion had no desire for conversation. “Moll Flanders,” she said after a moment. “Have you read this one?”

“Apparently not,” Alex replied in a distracted voice. “Else you would not have to cut the pages.”

Eliza laughed as if he had made a great joke. “I didn’t mean this particular copy, silly! I only meant the book. Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe.”

“I am aware who wrote Moll Flanders,” Alex said.

At that, there was a little pause from the reclining form next to him, as if she had heard the shortness of his voice and wondered what it meant. Whatever her conclusions, though, they weren’t enough to deter her. She brought the book into the light and opened the cover.

“‘The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders,’” she read off the title page, “‘Who was Born in Newgate, and during a Life of continu’d Variety for Threescore Years, besides her Childhood, was Twelve Year a Whore’—oh!—‘five times a Wife (whereof once to her Brother), Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon in Virginia, at last grew Rich, liv’d Honest, and dies a Penitent.’” She snapped the cover shut. “It sounds racy!” Her knife plunged back into the volume with renewed eagerness.

“It sounds like you don’t need to read it. The title is rather . . . fulsome. Besides, it has been sitting unread for a while now.”

Eliza’s knife jerked in her hand, and from the corner of his eye Alex saw a page rip, not along its seam but along its face.

“Are you upset with me, Alex?”

This time it was Alex who sighed. A clear sigh of warning. “Why should I be upset with you?”

Eliza tossed her book aside and turned over, placing her hand on his stomach—or, rather, on the pages there—and rubbing softly, which had the effect of causing the pages to swirl around. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

“Eliza, please!” Alex said, snatching the papers and thrusting them onto the bedside table. “These are important documents!”

“I wasn’t damaging them,” Eliza protested.

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