Read Online Deborah Camp by To Seduce andDefend - Free Book Online Page A

Warner will know what to do. As I said, I would leave this ugly business to him. Let him sort it out while you get your footing here. I don’t think you will find better people than Rachel and Bob McDonald.”
    “It was good of them to allow me to work for them.”
    “Are you low on funds, dear?”
    “No, but I will be soon without much money. I had planned on moving to the land and not having to pay for boarding …” She sighed. “Nothing has happened as I had envisioned.”
    “Life has a way of turning left when you thought you’d be turning right.”
    Jennie pulled her thoughts from her own troubles to focus on the other woman. “Is your husband in Boston?”
    “Yes. He had purchased another home for his kept woman and he moved there to be with her. I sold the home we had shared and most of our furnishings. He has petitioned for half of that money.”
    “Do you think he will be awarded it?”
    “Not if I have anything to say about it,” Sarah said, emphatically. “He is not going to get one more iota from me – not a cent, not a kind word, and not a care! Doesn’t it bedevil you that your husband was off gallivanting with another woman and you had no earthly idea about it? It gets under my skin, I tell you. How could I not have known? How could I have been so blind?”
    Jennie quelled a shiver that tiptoed up her spine. “It’s very unsettling. I thought Charles loved me. He never let on …” She felt tears sting the back of her eyes. “It hurts terribly to believe that he lied to me every day, every minute, every second.” Another thought struck her. “You didn’t know Charles, did you?”
    “Me? No. I’ve only been here a few weeks. I’ve
heard
about him and Luna from the McDonalds.”
    “They met him?”
    “Yes. Eventually, everyone comes into the dry goods store to buy something.”
    “What have you heard about Charles?”
    “Oh, not much really--”
    “Please, tell me,” Jennie persisted.
    Sarah wrinkled her nose. “You don’t want to hear the gossip, do you? It will only stab you in the heart and your poor heart is already bleeding.”
    “I want to know everything I can about Charles and that woman. If I don’t overturn every stone, I might miss something that could help me secure the land Charles purchased with
our
money.”
    Sarah studied her for a few moments before nodding slowly. “From what I heard Luna and your husband frequented the saloons and dance halls. They had a whirlwind romance and he was quite smitten with her. Are you sure you want to hear this?”
    Jennie opened her eyes, realizing only then that she had shut them tightly. Sarah’s description of Charles stung like hot needles. Charles dancing? Having a whirlwind romance?
Her
Charles, who had refused to dance, even at their wedding and who had been so tongue-tied when he had asked her to marry him that she had finished his request for him. What had he seen in Luna Lee that he found so bewitching that he became a different man around her?
    “I do want to hear,” Jennie said, releasing a long breath. “Please, tell me.”
    Sarah waved her hands in front of her as if erasing the memory. “No, there isn’t any more to tell and it’s all gossip. Luna is the type of woman who sets tongues to wagging.”
    “She certainly doesn’t want for male companionship, it seems,” Jennie said, drawing on her gloves again as she prepared to leave. “She goes from one husband right to the next with barely a backward glance.”
    “This town is full of opportunists and broken hearts. Many of the women you will meet were wronged and have come here to begin anew with their heads held high. Being a divorcee is not for the weak of heart. Society looks down its nose at us.”
    Jennie let go of a laugh that scorched her throat with its bitterness. “I came here as a widow and now I am a divorced woman. It is all so unbelievable to me. Charles was always so kind and considerate towards me. He simply wasn’t the type to keep