Never Call It Love by Veronica Jason

Author:Veronica Jason [Jason, Veronica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451083432
Google: AydPNgAACAAJ
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Published: 1978-01-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

As she drove through the courtyard gates, young Joseph came hurrying around the corner of the house to take charge of the dapple gray. Then the massive front doors opened, and Clarence came down the steps and helped her to the cobblestones. Heart pounding now with not only dread but also a growing defiance, she went into the house.

As she had expected to, she saw Patrick standing just beyond the library's doorway. Without waiting for him to speak, she swept past him into the room, head held high. He closed the doors and then turned toward her. For several seconds his infuriated gaze locked with her defiant one. Then he said, "Well, madam?"

She didn't answer.

His rage fueled by her silence, he said, "Is this the way you repay trust and generosity? I let you ask that parson fellow here, even though I knew you might be making sheep's eyes at each other. I welcomed him as best I knew how." His voice gathered fury. "And then today I see you making a public spectacle of yourselves—"

"Scarcely a spectacle, since there was no one to see us."

"I saw you! And others may have, too. I warned you, Elizabeth. I warned you that I would not let you make a fool of me."

She could no longer keep her bitterness in check. "Whereas you are free to behave just as you please with Moira Ashley."

His voice turned cold. "You were the one who set forth the terms upon which we were married. You wrote that you would have no objection if—"

"Yes! I wrote that because I was desperate. And I was desperate because you had—"

"Stop that! God knows that whatever I did, I had provocation for it. Besides, that is all in the past."

"Is it?" she said furiously. "Is it? You dare to tell me it is all in the past, when I stand here carrying the child you..."

Rage closed her throat. Trembling all over, she moved toward the doors and then spun around to face him again. "But there is one thing you cannot do to me. I love Donald. And the only way you can stop my loving him is to kill me."

Blood rushed to his face, making it even darker. "By God, madam, if you don't watch both your behavior and your tongue, I may take up that challenge."

She wrenched the doors open and at an awkward run moved through the gloomy light toward the stairs. Blinded by tears, she started to climb. Halfway up, her toe caught on the rounded edge of a riser, and she fell heavily forward.

For a moment she just lay there, half-stunned. Then pain seized her like a giant hand. Dimly aware of what was happening, she screamed, not only from the pain but a foreknowledge of loss and sorrow. The giant hand relaxed, then squeezed again.

Patrick was beside her now. She heard him say, "Oh, my God, my God!" Then: "Colin! Tell Padric to ride to the village as fast as he can and bring back the midwife.

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