Tarleton's Wife by Bancroft Blair

Author:Bancroft, Blair [Bancroft, Blair]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781419919435
Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Published: 2008-12-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

What she needed was a deep dark hole. A private place to nurse her wounds. A place where no one could see her face or read her soul. A place where the heart on her sleeve was not so visible. Instead—with nowhere left to run—Julia returned to her chair by the fire. Nicholas, snug behind his maddening air of detachment, calmly handed her a glass of port before fixing his gaze in a brooding contemplation of the dancing firelight.

She was trapped. With no way to combat the pain of the Nicholas of her Dream regarding her with the well-remembered indifference Major Tarleton had once conferred upon young Julia Litchfield. And yet…with his insistence that she stay, Nicholas was acknowledging their marriage. Claiming her as his wife. Accepting the responsibility that went with marriage.

In the past two weeks she had learned the hazards of independence. The dreadful fear of finding herself without a roof over her head, no food to eat, ripe for plucking by those who preyed on the destitute and helpless. So she would sit here, Julia thought and be her sensible self. Even if it killed her. She drew a deep breath, willing herself to civilized conversation.

“I believe we are a year short of finishing your story,” Julia prompted. While Nicholas recounted his days in Spain, she could lose herself in his story, gaze at him while he talked, count the new lines in his face, the small scars. Memorize his beloved features for all the years of loneliness to come.

She was mistaken. The hurt was a sharp stab which spread out into numbing waves of despair. For with the second part of Nicholas’ tale came Doña Violante Modestia Vila Santiago.

* * * * *

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