Forbidden by Anna Markland

Author:Anna Markland [Markland, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-15T05:00:00+00:00

Swan’s constant chewing of her lower lip and sideways glances were getting on Grace’s nerves. Her cousin obviously had something she wanted to say.

“Ouch,” Swan suddenly exclaimed, sticking a finger in her mouth. “I’ve stabbed myself again with this cursed needle. I hate sewing.”

“No wonder,” Grace countered. “Your mind is elsewhere, certainly not on the stitches. Careful you don’t bleed on the linen.”

Swan smiled. “You know me well. I was daydreaming of Rodrick.”

And I of Bronson.

“Bronson wants to spend Yuletide at Shelfhoc.”

Grace’s heart did a somersault. Had Swan read her mind? Or perhaps Bronson had somehow divined her longing to go to Shelfhoc with him. She held her tongue, afraid she might babble like an infant.

“He’s asked me to accompany him. I want to go, but not if it means being apart from Rodrick. I cannot go alone with two men.”

Swan wanted her along as a chaperone. Or did she? One of the men was her brother—hardly a risky escort. She’d traveled from Northumbria with him as her only companion apart from the men-at-arms who’d accompanied them.

She had to refuse. Celebrating Christ’s birth with Bronson in the house she had worked hard to prepare had been her dearest wish and her worst nightmare. Better to be far away from him, enjoying the entertainers at Ellesmere. There would be no such distractions at Shelfhoc, though she guessed the servants would perform some mummery.

“You want me to accompany you?”

Dismayed by her lack of resolve, she poked at an ill-made stitch in her embroidery, intending to unpick it. She cursed under her breath when the needle punctured her flesh. A tiny blob of blood bubbled to the surface of her skin, and sat there like a raindrop on a leaf. She stared at it, close to tears.

“Don’t worry,” Swan reassured her. “It will soon stop bleeding.”

It’s not the wound that’s painful.

“Will you come with us?”

I cannot.

“Yes. If Bronson allows it.”

“Leave him to me,” Swan replied.

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