Harlequin Historical March 2024--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Martin

Author:Laura Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2024-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

‘Don’t go, Max,’ Georgia whispered to the late summer air, but her words were too quiet and too late for him to hear them and he wouldn’t have listened anyway.

He was probably halfway to Holdfast village by now. She stood very still as she searched the shadows for a last glimpse of him before she gave up and went inside without her husband. If it wasn’t for her stuttering heartbeat, and another unsatisfactory evening in his company, she might be able to enjoy the peace of the night so far from the nearest town or city.

She could hear the whooshing sound of swifts’ wings as they flew over the parkland hunting for insects and sang their odd, keening music even in the dark. Then there was the distant call of an owl and the silence of small creatures frozen in fear. It was as well she was brought up in the country, she decided, or she might find the secret life of a late summer night eerie and disturbing and the bats gliding over the close-grazed parkland frightening. She might have, if all her attention wasn’t fixed on her search for even a clue as to where Max had gone.

She was dressed for a polite soirée rather than for blundering through the sleepy countryside in the dark. Her fine silk gown and dancing slippers said no, even if the rest of her was reckless enough to want to chase after him to ask why he was being so gruff tonight. She probably didn’t want to know and how far did Max mean to roam in his finely made evening clothes? She just hoped he didn’t ruin them while he was out there doing whatever he was doing in the dark.

Or maybe he should. If he had nothing left to wear for evenings like the one they had just spent but his old working coats, he might refuse to spend more time as the newest husband in local society and save her the tension and tedium of being polite to his wealthier neighbours. There were too many sly whispers from ladies old enough to know better about what a very fine husband she had for comfort and the younger ones resented her for snatching the finest catch in the North Country out from under their noses.

What if Max had gone to find the besotted woman she had decided must mend his coats when she came here to confide in him all those weeks ago? Jealousy was like a physical force inside her and so hot and fierce it hurt her to imagine him tapping on the back door of a house secluded enough for her neighbours not to see him come and go to ruin his shadowy mistress’s good name. He had no reason to keep his vows to his wife when she hadn’t kept her side of the bargain.

Yet she had begun this evening with such hopes for more. She had almost meant it to be the one when

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