Read Online Half Past Mourning by Fleeta Cunningham - Free Book Online

despair.
    “Nina, tell me.” Peter’s insistent words penetrated. His solid grasp held her to him, a warm, secure barrier against the storm that overwhelmed her. “Nina, you’ve got to tell me what happened. Was it Danny? Did you hear from him? Talk to me, sweetheart.”
    Nina drew a shaky breath. “Peter...” She felt the first tears flow down her cheeks. “Peter, I’ve been wrong, all along. I’ve been living in a dream.” She pulled herself from his arms and turned away. “I’ve been the biggest fool…the biggest fool that ever was.” The tears wouldn’t stop. They coursed down her cheeks, and she buried her face in her hands, too humiliated to look at Peter.
    His hand was gentle on her shoulder. “I doubt that, sweetheart.” His grasp was firm but caring as he raised her face, and she found herself looking into his steady grey eyes. “Can you tell me what’s happened?”
    She shook her head. “There’s no reason to look for Danny. He doesn’t want to be found. And”—pain made her voice unsteady—“and I don’t think I could face him if I did find him.”
    Peter didn’t move away. He continued to regard her with an unwavering look, head tilted, tone unconvinced. “How do you know, Nina? He talked to you? Called? Wrote a letter after all this time?”
    She tried to turn away again, but something in Peter’s stance, his immovable form, made her reach out to him. “Do I really have to talk about it? Can’t we just let it go?”
    “If two years of hopes have crashed down around you, don’t you think you need to talk to somebody, Nina? I’m here and at least a little involved, but if you’d rather have someone else, I understand. Want to call your uncle? A girlfriend, maybe?”
    Uncle Eldon! I’ll have to tell him, let him know Tinker’s coming to see him. He loves Danny like a son; he’ll have to be prepared. But I can’t face him now. Recognizing she couldn’t keep the new information to herself, Nina straightened her shoulders and looked up at Peter. “I’ll tell Uncle Eldon later. He’ll have to know about this, but not tonight.” She wiped at her teary eyes, pushed damp curls from her cheeks, and gestured at the large, leather chair. “Sit down and give me a minute, will you? I’m an awful mess. We’ll talk in a little while, but let me put myself back together first.”
    A washcloth and hairbrush couldn’t remove all trace of the upheaval in her world, but after a few repairs Nina felt better prepared to bring Peter current with the situation. She took a moment to change from the pants and shirt she’d worn earlier to a warmer, less confining quilted robe. The red-and-white gingham gave color to her pale cheeks and dissipated some of the chill that clutched her.
    She saw Peter had found the bottle of brandy left from her Christmas baking and poured two small glasses. He pressed one into her hand when she returned to the living room.
    “I thought you could use this.” A slight smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “Strictly medicinal, of course.”
    She sipped, let the fiery contents of the glass warm the ice that had formed around her heart, and nodded. “It helps.” She took refuge in her comforting chair and swallowed another sip of brandy.
    He stayed near, patience and concern drawing his angular brows together. He turned the glass, warming the brandy between his hands, taking a swallow, waiting with unhurried ease. Nina tried to arrange her thoughts, struggled to find words, but gave up. The only way to tell it was to put the facts as she now knew them before Peter. Then he’d know as much as she did and realize the search for Danny was pointless.
    “Danny left me. He planned it all along. He told a friend he wanted to get away from Marigold and her controlling ways, and he was using the wedding as a cover to do it.” She took another swallow of brandy to get her through the last part. “And he had other girls, lots of girls. The friend knew about them.”