Read Online Glimmer of Hope by Sarah M. Eden - Free Book Online Page B

see those beautiful eyes filled with laughter touched a part of him he’d thought long dead.
    “I would say Liliana has added your wife to her list of conquests.” The duke watched his daughter with amusement. “Liliana will begin demanding her presence in the nursery before much longer.”
    A wave of guilt swept over Carter in that instant. He’d told Miranda he would ask Hartley and Adèle if she could hold little Henry. They’d been at Clifton Manor for four days, and he hadn’t even recalled that promise until now.
    “I know that look,” Hartley said under his breath, amusement obvious in his tone. “What complaint have you just discovered your wife is entitled to lodge against you?”
    “I doubt your wife has many reasons to complain, Hartley.” Carter couldn’t think of many marriages as obviously happy as his good friends’.
    His grace laughed. “There isn’t a wife in all the world who doesn’t have a list of legitimate complaints against her husband.”
    “And vice versa?” Carter asked dryly.
    “It has been my experience that the balance weighs heavily against us.” Hartley smiled. “So what have you added to your list?”
    “I forgot to do something I told her I would do.”
    “Ah.” Hartley nodded sagely. “The first item on any husband’s list.”
    Carter appreciated the attempt at lightness. Miranda smiled still, playing with Liliana and fully participating in the antics enacted for the child’s benefit. She looked more alive than Carter had seen her yet. The closest she’d come before was the short visit they’d made to the Miltons’ and the time she’d spent with little George.
    Her past behavior hurt—more than he’d ever admitted to anyone. And it baffled him. He’d thought he was a good husband. And he’d loved her to distraction. He still loved her in some small way.
    “It seems there is more bothering you than a forgotten promise.” Hartley pulled Carter a little farther from the group. “Do we need to take a quick jaunt to the book room so you can make more confessions?”
    Carter shook his head adamantly. “I have made all the admissions I intend to make.”
    “I would wager you still aren’t sure what to think of Lady Devereaux.” Hartley nodded as though he knew his guess was correct, but he gave Carter a look that was clearly meant to encourage him to talk about it.
    His reserve wasn’t so easily pierced. And it seemed Hartley’s patience wasn’t easily spent.
    “At the very least,” Hartley said, “she is maintaining the peace at this party. Some women would take advantage of a captive audience to air all their grievances.”
    That was true enough. “Miranda never was petty. At least that much didn’t change.”
    Hartley’s gaze grew more thoughtful. “That is a fairly fundamental thing and an encouraging one, I would think. Perhaps you have reason to hope she isn’t the coldhearted villainess you’ve been imagining.”
    “A valiant effort, my friend,” Carter said. “But as I said already, I’m not making more confessions.” Especially when he wasn’t entirely sure what he thought of Miranda. She was quieter, paler, and frustratingly unshakable. She seemed no happier about being thrust into his company than he was about being thrust into hers. She might not be the terrible person he feared she’d become, but neither was she the loving wife he’d married.
    “Let me offer some unsolicited advice,” Hartley said, smiling a little self-deprecatingly. “I have found, in the short time I’ve been married, that no matter how wrong I think Adèle is or how right I am, if she is unhappy, so am I. And seeing her smile at me is worth far more than winning an argument.”
    Seeing her smile at me. If he closed his eyes, Carter was certain he could picture Miranda smiling at him the way she used to. He’d turned to jelly at the sight of that smile.
    But theirs was no simple argument. They hadn’t quarreled over a small difference of opinion or