Illicit Love by Jane Lark

Author:Jane Lark [Lark, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sapphire Star Publishing
Published: 2013-04-28T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Edward watched Ellen step out of John’s bedchamber beside the nursery and pull the door shut quietly. “Is he settled?” She jumped.

Ellen had escaped the dinner table to take John up to bed while he was drinking his port. He’d followed because he feared she was avoiding him.

She’d been uncommunicative all afternoon, claiming a headache and retiring to bed, leaving John in Edward’s company.

He had entertained the boy with a game of backgammon and Ellen had rejoined them for dinner, but she’d hardly talked.

He hadn’t a clue what he’d done to deserve her cold shoulder. He wanted to know.

“Yes.” Her gaze fell away from him as she moved to pass him, showing no inclination to explain her ill-mood.

Exasperated, his temper on the verge of breaking, Edward touched her arm to stop her. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” She pulled her arm free. But the note in her voice told him if he hadn’t already known, it was something.

Lowering his voice to a whisper John would not hear through the door, determined not to lose his temper, Edward responded. “Ellen, do not lie to me, I’m not a fool. Your manner has been different all afternoon. You’ve hardly spoken to me. Something is wrong. I won’t know what it is unless you tell me.”

Her pale blue eyes, swept up to his, in a look that clearly stated he was out of favour yet her words again defied him. “If there was anything I wished to say to you I would have spoken of it.”

“So that is it then, I am to be excluded from what is really going on in here.” His index finger touched her temple. Her eyelids fell, cloaking her response, her eyelashes fanning across the white skin of her cheek, so black.

She was a woman of contrasts, and all those contrasts were the things that made her beautiful, pale skin, ebony hair, black lashes framing pale eyes, and beneath her hard shell, a soft heart. These were all the things that made him love her. He brushed the pad of his thumb across her closed eyelid his fingers against her cheek. “Tell me. We cannot live together if you will not discuss things openly with me? Don’t throw me scraps of how you feel. Don’t make me beg.”

Her eyelids lifted, her emotion clear now—anger. Her hand knocking his aside, she took a deep breath, as though she’d not breathed for hours. “Yesterday you offered me choice and then again you did not consult me.” Her voice was a whisper, but it was harsh and bitter with resentment.

“Ellen?”

“Did you not even think to ask me before you took me to meet your friends?”

On the defensive, the volume of his voice increased. “I thought you would welcome the friendship of another woman. Julie is the easiest, most welcoming woman I have ever met but you managed to insult her. I never thought for one moment that you would not like her. No one dislikes her!”

“The problem is, Edward, you do not think!” Her voice rose too; her anger now equally audible.

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.