Read Online ROOK AND RAVEN: The Celtic Kingdom Trilogy Book One by Julie Harvey Delcourt - Free Book Online Page A

of not repelling him.  He seemed a good man, and discreet.  It would have been so pleasant to have at last laid down all the burdens she had carried for the past years and let someone else do the heavy lifting.  
    Sebastian had either come back at a very good time, or a very bad one, mere moments before she would have taken an irrevocable step.  She wasn’t sure which it was yet.  But his return had brought back all the feelings that had flooded her every minute and filled her with every breath as a teenager.  Remembering, albeit unwillingly remembering, what love felt like stalled her decision to marry Edward.  She didn’t know her own mind.  She might appear collected on the outside, but inside Jessy was painfully aware her needs as a woman had been reawakened.  It caused a flutter of panic just below her heart.  
    Granted, the primary emotion she was currently feeling was hate, not love, but she had put strong emotion so far from her in the past years just to survive, that even that reawakening was a powerful shock.  Her hand trembled with a sudden spurt of rage mixed with a mild dose of hysteria.  He had actually thought she would become his mistress!  Was he insane?
    “My dear, are you cold?  Your hand is trembling,” Edward smiled down at her with concern.
    “No, no.  I think maybe the performance this evening took more out of me than usual.  I do hope I’m not coming down with something,” like love or even lust with Sebastian she thought. Oh stop thinking about him! She berated herself.
    “I see my sister over by the garden doors.  I think she was rather hoping we would be making an announcement this evening and is probably dying of curiosity.  We’d best go and speak with her,” Edward led her around the crush of people at the edge of the dance floor.
    “I find it hard to believe she’d hope you would marry an actress.  She has been terribly kind to me but she must have hoped for you to make a much more brilliant marriage.”
    “Remember, my own mother was not nearly as well born as you and all my family has an affection for the theater.  If the fourth Duke could marry whom he chose, why not me?  We Tamworth’s have always admired true talent, and you my dear have a gift.  What’s the good of being a Duke if I can’t make society bend just a little to my will?  I can’t imagine anyone looking better in the Duchess’s tiara,” he smiled.
    They were standing with Lady Georgina, sipping champagne, and recovering from a rather vigorous set of country dances when they were interrupted.  A dark clad figure, obviously not in evening attire, was cutting across the room toward them.  Jessy recognized Mr. Burnell, Edward’s secretary.  What could possibly have brought him out this late and to a ball to chase down his employer?  It couldn’t be anything good.  His normally pale face looked flushed and his cravat had been very hastily tied.
    “My dear,” Edward took Jessy’s hand, “I think our evening has come to an abrupt end.  Nothing would bring Mr. Burnell here but a great emergency.  I shall have to leave you with Georgina.  You have the use of my carriage.  I shall instruct my coachman when I leave.” With a final kiss of her hand he turned to join Mr. Burnell, who stood respectfully, but impatiently waiting at the edge of their group.
    “Whatever could have happened?” Lady Georgina wondered.  “I know Edward and my husband have been engaged in some rather hush hush dealings of late with the Ministry, but with the war so long over what could possibly be important enough that it must be seen to at this hour?”
    “Now my lady, we must not speculate.  If the war taught us anything, it was not to discuss state affairs in public.” Lord Harrow’s heavy handed advice and rather reprimanding tone brought a curl to Lady Georgina’s lips, quickly erased.  As the wife of one of the highest ranking members in the ministry, she could never have been accused of