Too Near to My Heart (Book Two of the Corwin-Chandler Trilogy) by Arianna Eastland

Author:Arianna Eastland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, native american, historical romance, new england, colonial
Publisher: Arianna Eastland

CHAPTER TEN

Rosalind awoke the next morning, surprised she had slept for so many hours without awakening in the night, especially considering how loudly Corn Woman usually snored. She assumed she had been so exhausted from the stress of the previous day, it had made her oblivious to all else around her.

She sat up and then attempted to stand. The pain and soreness she felt made it a difficult task, but she stood. Immediately, she had a strong urge to relieve her bladder. She walked outside to the area behind the wigwam, which was concealed by a thick growth of trees and bushes, and squatted. The severe, burning pain her urine caused made her cry out. She clasped her hand over her mouth and finished relieving herself, then returned to the wigwam.

Corn Woman, who was seated on a mat away from the fire and making a coiled basket, looked at her. “I heard you out back,” she said. “You have pain?”

Rosalind silently cursed herself for having made a sound.

“Aye, a bee stung me when I was in a most unfortunate position,” she lied, rubbing her buttocks and smiling.

“Mud from the river applied to the sting will calm it,” Corn Woman said.

“Thank you for the advice, but I think I shall stay away from the river – at least for today. I have had enough water for a while.”

“That man truly loves you,” Corn Woman said, shaking her head. “Never have I seen him more upset or shaken.”

“Shadow?”

“Need you ask?” Corn Woman’s eyebrows rose. “Why, are there other men in your life?”

Rosalind smiled. “Nay. ‘Tis just that I feel so fortunate to have his love, oft times I cannot believe it.” She was going to add that she wished they could be wed in all possible haste, but something disturbing occurred to her. She did not wish to wed Shadow – at least not at that moment. The passionate desire she had felt for him, the throbbing need for him, had vanished. The mere thought of being touched by the man she loved turned her blood cold. The realization troubled her.

Has Nathaniel forever ruined me for Shadow? Will I ever feel desire again? And if I cannot, what then? How shall I explain to Shadow why I no longer want him to touch me, when just the other night I so wantonly placed his hand upon my breast?

Rosalind took a deep breath and told herself she was panicking for naught. She realized that it still was too soon after the brutal rape to even be thinking about passion. She needed time to heal both her body and her mind. She believed that love, especially love as powerful as the one she and Shadow shared, would be the medicine she needed to make her feel like a normal woman with normal desires again. Her father often had preached to her that life’s disappointments all had a good purpose, and now she realized that having her marriage to Shadow not approved and delayed for

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