The Rake by Putney Mary Jo

Author:Putney, Mary Jo [Putney, Mary Jo]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Romance, General, Historical, Fiction
ISBN: 9780451406866
Publisher: Topaz
Published: 1998-04-02T07:00:00+00:00

Sobriety proved far more difficult than Reggie had expected. By the second day, thoughts of drinking were becoming an obsession. Again and again he imagined himself opening the library cabinet and pouring amber fluid into a glass. He could almost taste the exquisite tang on his tongue, feel the warmth that would glow through him after he swallowed that first mouthful.

Several times he caught himself about to act out that vision. Then, fiercely determined, he turned away. He could, and by God would, do this.

It was the haying season, so he spent the morning hours swinging a scythe with the laborers, finding respite in the mindless rhythms of farm work. When the luncheons of bread and cheese and ale appeared, he left to remove himself from temptation. It’s only ale, his longing mind would whisper. Not wine or spirits. Quite harmless.

So must the serpent have whispered in Eden. But Reggie had gotten drunk on beer and ale often enough to know that only the quantity required was different from drinking spirits. If he was stopping, he must stop entirely, without self-deception.

In his first afternoon of sobriety, Reggie visited a horse fair near Dorchester and bought four young horses with excellent potential as hunters. The next afternoon he began schooling them. It was a task that required patience and concentration, so it focused Reggie’s mind on something other than his ever-increasing need for a drink.

Though Dorset was not first-class hunting country, there was enough variety of terrain around Strickland for training purposes. Some of the schooling was done over the countryside, and some took place in the paddock. Young William perched on the fence and watched whenever he could. The boy had the makings of a real horseman.

Reggie also took Peter out for driving lessons. While the older boy lacked his brother’s all-encompassing fascination with horseflesh, he was bright and eager to learn. Teaching him to drive was another good distraction.

Yet no matter how hard he worked during the day, in the evenings Reggie was intolerably restless, too tense to read, too bad-tempered to talk. During the hours he had once spent drinking, he took refuge in walking around the estate. The sun set very late at this season, and in the cool hours of waning light he became intimately acquainted with his ancestral home. He prowled from the high, lonely downs dotted with sheep to the rich water meadows with their ripening grain, his long strides taut and impatient.

Even walking until full dark could not subdue his tension. Invariably he would end at his private cove on the lake. There he stripped off his clothes and plunged into the water, swimming furiously until utter exhaustion made sleep possible.

By the fourth day he was feeling so irascible that he canceled a driving lesson with Peter, knowing that he would have trouble being civil. Reggie considered taking dinner apart from his new housemates, but decided not to change the routine. So he ate with the others, saying little to avoid wounding feelings with his sharp-edged tongue.

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