Love Only Once by Johanna Lindsey

Author:Johanna Lindsey
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 0380899531
Published: 2011-09-03T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

“AH, don’t cry any more, sweetheart,” Meg pleaded. “Your cousins will be here in a moment to help with the dressin‘. You don’t want them to see you like this.”

“I can’t help it,” Reggie sobbed miserably. “And aren’t brides supposed to cry on their wedding day?”

“But you’ve been cryin‘ for a week. It hasn’t helped, has it?”

“No.” Reggie shook her head.

“And you don’t want your eyes to be all puffy, not today of all days.”

Reggie shrugged wearily. “I don’t care about that. I’ll have the veil on.”

“But you won’t be wearin‘ a veil tonight.”

There was a silence, and then Reggie whispered, “Will there be a wedding night?”

“You can’t be thinkin‘ he won’t show up?” Meg gasped, outraged.

“Oh, he’ll be there,” Reggie sighed. “But I told you what he said.”

“Nonsense. Some men are just scared to death of marriage, and your Viscount appears to be one of them.”

“But he swore he wouldn’t be a husband to me.”

“He said that in anger,” Meg said patiently. “You can’t go holdin‘ a man to what he says in anger.”

“Yet he can hold himself to it, don’t you see? Oh, how could I have been so wrong about him, Meg?”

Reggie cried. “How could I?” She shook her head. “To think I once compared him to Tony. Nicholas Eden is nothing like my uncle. He hasn’t an ounce of feeling—except between his legs,” she added bitterly.

“Reggie!”

“Well, it’s true,” she retorted. “I was just a game to him, another conquest.”

Meg stood looking down at her, hands on her hips. “You should have told him about the baby,” she said for the hundredth time. “At least he would have understood why you must go through with this.”

“He probably wouldn’t have believed it. I am even beginning to wonder. Look at me! Four months gone and I’m still not showing even a little. And there’s been no sickness, no… Am I binding myself to this Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

man for nothing? What if I’m not carrying his child?”

“I wish it weren’t so, my girl, but you know it is. And I still say you should have told him.”

“Fool that I was, I thought his despicable behavior was only a ruse,” Reggie said bitterly. She sighed.

“You know, Meg, I do still have some pride left.”

“Sometimes we must swallow every bit of pride, sweetheart,” Meg said gently.

Reggie shook her head. “I’ll tell you just what he would have said if I had confessed. He would have told me to stop wasting time on a lost cause and find a father for my child.”

“Maybe you should have.”

Reggie’s eyes flashed. “I would never force one man’s child on another! Nicholas Eden has a child on the way, and he can pay the price for it, not someone else.”

“You’re the one payin‘, Reggie, with heartache and misery.”

“I know,” she sighed, the fire gone. “But only because I thought I loved him. Once I see how wrong I was, I will manage.”

“It’s not too late, you know. You can leave for the Continent before—”

“No!” Reggie said so forcefully the maid jumped.

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