Love Unbound (Trade Wind Book 6) by Rebecca Aubrey

Author:Rebecca Aubrey [Aubrey, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feisty Otter Publications
Published: 2023-02-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

James guided his mount around the bend that would bring Anterleigh Hall into view, its stone façade alight in the late afternoon sun. The horse’s ears rotated nervously.

“It’s all right,” he crooned.

It’s all right, he told himself, too. Yes, returning to Clara and Flora was a happy thought, and the closer to home he was, the more his spirits rose.

But lurking in the background was all the recent angst. When he’d first returned to some semblance of a routine after Flora’s birth and the troubles, guilt had eaten at him during his excursions. At first he kept them brief, fearing that something terrible would happen in his absence. Even when Clara seemed well enough that the risk of her harming herself had passed, she could scarcely make it to the dining room without going from ghostly white to gray and nearly losing consciousness.

Just a month ago, turning this corner and riding into sight of the Neo-Gothic castle, he had prayed he wouldn’t return to horrific news of one sort or another. The fears had lessened over the weeks as Clara improved, and then it became a matter of worrying about how her recovery was progressing, physically and otherwise, and wondering whether she might meet his eyes for a little longer than the day before. Whether she could be coaxed to eat more than tiny rations. Or return to any of her former interests, even light ones like embroidery or reading.

Oh, and the gnawing guilt! He missed Clara and Flora when he was out on Anterleigh business. But he also needed that time away. Not only did he crave, nay require, exertion, but it was rewarding to get out of the house and be of bloody use! Applying his hands and his mind today, a stone wall had been transformed from decrepit to solid.

Nothing would stop him from doing whatever he could for Clara and Flora, yet he couldn’t cure his wife through sheer will. If only life were as simple to mend as a wall.

But by God, the satisfaction he’d known after a day’s hard work couldn’t hold a candle to the sight that greeted him when he neared the stables. Over in the gardens off the back terrace of the Hall, his wife carried a bundled up Flora, and she was waving at him and smiling!

After grinning and waving in return he dismounted, suddenly renewed, then passed the reins to a waiting stable boy with haste.

“How were my beauties today?” James asked Clara with relish, relieved and happy beyond measure to see how clear her eyes looked. First he kissed her, then Flora.

“We’re taking the air together.” With a glorious smile, Clara looked around the rose garden, dormant now in February. “We’ve been talking about flowers and how, in a few short months, we’ll be surrounded by blooms and birds and sunshine.”

Flora gurgled, making them both laugh. Above their heads a gray winter sky stretched as far as the eye could see, but looking from his daughter to his wife, he felt as though spring had already graced them.

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