The Spinster Who Saved a Scoundrel by Christi Caldwell

Author:Christi Caldwell
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Regency
Publisher: Christi Caldwell
Published: 2020-01-16T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

How dare he?

The following morn, Francesca awoke, went through her morning ablutions, and still felt the very same anger she had when she’d left Lathan last evening.

She paced before her neatly made bed, the white coverlet perfectly pulled.

Well, Lathan’s bed… which he’d been good enough to let her borrow.

But that was neither here nor there, in this instant.

Lathan, who’d not so much as ever met her late father, presumed to pass judgment on him… and the words Papa had left behind for Francesca. Worse, Lathan had thought nothing of calling Papa out. Her beloved father, who’d gone to his grave with only one concern: wanting to see that Francesca was happy.

By the request he left for you, he wished for you to live joyously and fully. But by that list there and your devotion to see it carried out precisely as he wished, you’re not really living for yourself, but rather, for him.

Francesca stopped so swiftly, her skirts swirled about her ankles.

Her indignation hadn’t stemmed from annoyance that he’d called out her father, but rather, that he’d called her out.

And what was more…

Francesca pressed her eyes closed. “He was right,” she whispered.

Since the moment her godmother had handed over that beloved note and Francesca had read her father’s request, she’d set out to fulfill those items. She’d felt empowered, proud in the idea of carrying out things she had never done. And she’d believed herself to be behaving in a way she’d never behaved. Doing things, when she’d only ever lived a predictable life.

Only to find that Lathan had been correct with his accusation: She wasn’t seeing to her own happiness. Even after her father’s death, she was living for her father’s wishes. Because that was all she’d ever known or done.

What was worse, she didn’t even know what living joyfully and fully even meant. Nor had she taken the deserved time to consider it. Likely, because it had been easier to cross items off a list and believe her life was complete than to think at all of how she’d let her life pass her by… and how she’d ceded her happiness along the way.

Mayhap that realization should have ushered in resentment. Annoyance. Sadness.

Only, it didn’t. Instead, a wonderful, freeing lightness slipped around her chest, filling every corner and crevice. At last, she’d looked at her life… hers. Not Papa’s. Not her godmother’s. Only Francesca’s herself. And there was something empowering in this, the chance to not let any more of her life pass her by.

With a renewed purpose, she shifted course. Hurrying over to the nightstand, she grabbed her notebook and pencil. She scrambled into the middle of the bed, where the mattress dipped, and opened her book. With every turn of the page, she felt… enlivened. Emboldened in ways she’d never been.

Because of Lathan.

He deserved the credit for calling her out and forcing her to consider… nay, for making her see that though her father’s list had been given in love, the items upon it should belong to Francesca.

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