Read Online Chance the Winds of Fortune by Laurie McBain - Free Book Online Page B

and as sisters-in-law, we are family. I happen to be Sabrina to my family. Do I make myself clear?” she added, sounding more like the imperious duchess than ever.
    â€œYou’d be wise to do as she says, Sarah,” the duke commented lazily. “I learned years ago not to cross her.”
    â€œYou circumvent me, that is all. Don’t think I am not wise to your methods, my dear,” the duchess responded with an arch look at her husband, who was smiling complacently.
    Sarah looked from one to the other of them, amazed at their teasing words, and suddenly she knew she would be blessed if she had only half as good a marriage as the duke’s and duchess’s.
    â€œNow please do sit down,” the duchess ordered with a smile that robbed her words of any sting. “I do not intend to be the cause of your losing Richard’s heir. How are you feeling? Not nauseous, I hope? Good! Now, would you care for a cup of tea?” the duchess politely inquired. But her casual reference to so private a female condition had caused Sarah to blush with painful embarrassment when she happened to catch the duke’s eye.
    â€œOh, don’t mind Lucien,” the duchess told her, correctly interpreting her sister-in-law’s blushes, “he’s played the expectant father far too many times not to understand what we go through. In fact,” the duchess continued, her eyes exchanging a special, shared memory with the duke, “Lucien helped to deliver Francis, so he knows better than most men what childbearing is all about. I was a bit headstrong in my youth,” she explained, sending the duke a quelling glance when he said something beneath his breath at her offhand remark. “I was not expecting Francis for another month, or so I’d thought. I had been visiting my sister, when on the journey home, in the middle of a thunderstorm, no less,” the duchess said, her eyes now sparkling with the memory, “Francis joined us. I’m not sure who was more surprised,” she said with an engaging laugh, “Lucien, Francis, me, or the coachman when he heard Francis’s lusty cry. I’m afraid poor Richard thought I was going to die.”
    Sarah’s mouth dropped open. “Richard was there?” she asked in amazement, realizing there was far more to her rather intellectual husband than she had ever imagined. “I knew that he had lived with you here at Camareigh after your marriage, and that your parents are both dead,” Sarah said. She knew now that she had never before quite suspected the deep bond between Richard and his sister, as well as the bond between Richard and the duke.
    â€œOur mother died a few days after Richard was born, and we were raised for many years in Scotland, by our mother’s father. Our own father wanted nothing to do with us. When Grandfather died,” the duchess explained, “we came to England and lived at Verrick House, where, oddly enough, we had all been born. When I married Lucien, Richard came with me. I’m not sure Lucien had counted on that,” the duchess commented with a smile that only her husband understood.
    â€œI would have had it no other way, for indeed,” the duke said conversationally, “’twas Richard’s actions that instigated a reconciliation between us. We have had our differences in the past, Sarah. And there was a time, long, long ago, when I thought I had lost Sabrina,” the duke confided. “These Verricks are independent and stubborn people, Sarah. In fact, they are a bit eccentric, but I’ve never once regretted marrying into the family,” he told her.
    The duke’s casual use of her name warmed Sarah and began to make her feel accepted at Camareigh. She knew this was important if she was to make a success of her marriage, for Camareigh had been Richard’s home, and he worshipped the duke and duchess. She had wanted so very badly to be accepted by his