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Authors: Natasha Blackthorne
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her? Ever, I mean, about her father and her mother?”
“Of course I won’t. How could I? It would hurt her too much.”
“Hurt her?” Mrs Hazelwood’s thin, white brows drew together. “Yes, I suppose it might. But for certain it would only confuse the poor girl. I did what I felt I had to do at the time. There was no fixing matters.” Her frail looking shoulders rose and fell as she sighed. “I have tried to do my best by that girl but she is so stubborn, so spirited. Surely you understand why she could never—should never know.”
No, the best had not been done for Beth. But what good would it do to confront an old woman now when it was too late? “Let’s just get the announcement over with.”
* * * *
In the ballroom, Grey tried to pay attention to the conversation between two of his business associates, but it was a losing battle. The announcement was of necessity delayed, for there was no sign of Beth. Where the hell was she? And who was she with?
But then he knew, didn’t he?
He wanted nothing more than to go and find them and set that pale-faced, bespectacled doctor back on his heels. Then he would demand that Beth explain exactly what she was playing at. Inwardly, he laughed at himself. Life had taught him better than this, yet here he was. Right back to being a nineteen-year-old, newly-wed husband. Waiting and wondering where Juliana was and whom she was with. Learning with bitter affect that the woman he’d married was nothing more than a vain, selfish, spoilt flirt.
On a late winter’s day, she had lain on the old, rickety, dusty bed—naked—and held her arms out to him.
“I have waited for you. Only for you.”
Her words, whispered against his ear, had seemed like a long-held dream come true—a dream he hadn’t even known he’d been wishing for. And he had fallen for her. Of course he had. She had been pretty, petite, delicately made with long, glossy, dark-brown hair and large brown eyes in a porcelain face. More than that, she’d been bright, happy and socially facile. He’d been all of nineteen, recently graduated from Harvard and wholly awkward around females. A virgin.
Later, when he’d discovered her true nature, when it was too late, after they were wed and had a child on the way, she’d admitted she had wanted him, had waited for him because he was the sole heir to Sexton Shipping.
Was Beth any different?
He’d thought she was different—so very different. Yet that was only his heart speaking. It had been no accident she’d been at the bookseller’s that first day. She knew who he was, how wealthy he was. And hadn’t she already shown a disquieting tendency to give large sums of his money to her family?
He refused to go chasing after her like a jealous fiancé.
But he was certainly going to have things out with her about her flight from the schoolroom and this disappearance. He’d make sure she understood that this was intolerable.
Yet was that enough? Did he really want to live through another marriage like his first? Were all women such vain creatures that they must give cause for matter of honour to flatter their notions of their worth?
It wasn’t too late to back out. They needn’t make the announcement.
The thought came unbidden and unwanted, but it was there.
An uneasy tingling around his navel interrupted his disloyal thoughts. He immediately turned and caught sight of Beth coming through the garden doors. Her eyes looked wild and her face was flushed.
The diadem of roses on her head was skewed and several silver-gold tendrils curled around her face in disarray.
She caught his gaze and the pain in her blue eyes stabbed him right in the heart. He fisted his hands.
Oh fuck. If that bastard had dared hurt her—
Chapter Four
Grey held his breath as Beth swept towards him.
She stopped inches in front of him and touched his arm. Gold light glinted on the pale lashes framing her eyes, deep and turbulent as the Black Sea. Raw emotional energy
“Of course I won’t. How could I? It would hurt her too much.”
“Hurt her?” Mrs Hazelwood’s thin, white brows drew together. “Yes, I suppose it might. But for certain it would only confuse the poor girl. I did what I felt I had to do at the time. There was no fixing matters.” Her frail looking shoulders rose and fell as she sighed. “I have tried to do my best by that girl but she is so stubborn, so spirited. Surely you understand why she could never—should never know.”
No, the best had not been done for Beth. But what good would it do to confront an old woman now when it was too late? “Let’s just get the announcement over with.”
* * * *
In the ballroom, Grey tried to pay attention to the conversation between two of his business associates, but it was a losing battle. The announcement was of necessity delayed, for there was no sign of Beth. Where the hell was she? And who was she with?
But then he knew, didn’t he?
He wanted nothing more than to go and find them and set that pale-faced, bespectacled doctor back on his heels. Then he would demand that Beth explain exactly what she was playing at. Inwardly, he laughed at himself. Life had taught him better than this, yet here he was. Right back to being a nineteen-year-old, newly-wed husband. Waiting and wondering where Juliana was and whom she was with. Learning with bitter affect that the woman he’d married was nothing more than a vain, selfish, spoilt flirt.
On a late winter’s day, she had lain on the old, rickety, dusty bed—naked—and held her arms out to him.
“I have waited for you. Only for you.”
Her words, whispered against his ear, had seemed like a long-held dream come true—a dream he hadn’t even known he’d been wishing for. And he had fallen for her. Of course he had. She had been pretty, petite, delicately made with long, glossy, dark-brown hair and large brown eyes in a porcelain face. More than that, she’d been bright, happy and socially facile. He’d been all of nineteen, recently graduated from Harvard and wholly awkward around females. A virgin.
Later, when he’d discovered her true nature, when it was too late, after they were wed and had a child on the way, she’d admitted she had wanted him, had waited for him because he was the sole heir to Sexton Shipping.
Was Beth any different?
He’d thought she was different—so very different. Yet that was only his heart speaking. It had been no accident she’d been at the bookseller’s that first day. She knew who he was, how wealthy he was. And hadn’t she already shown a disquieting tendency to give large sums of his money to her family?
He refused to go chasing after her like a jealous fiancé.
But he was certainly going to have things out with her about her flight from the schoolroom and this disappearance. He’d make sure she understood that this was intolerable.
Yet was that enough? Did he really want to live through another marriage like his first? Were all women such vain creatures that they must give cause for matter of honour to flatter their notions of their worth?
It wasn’t too late to back out. They needn’t make the announcement.
The thought came unbidden and unwanted, but it was there.
An uneasy tingling around his navel interrupted his disloyal thoughts. He immediately turned and caught sight of Beth coming through the garden doors. Her eyes looked wild and her face was flushed.
The diadem of roses on her head was skewed and several silver-gold tendrils curled around her face in disarray.
She caught his gaze and the pain in her blue eyes stabbed him right in the heart. He fisted his hands.
Oh fuck. If that bastard had dared hurt her—
Chapter Four
Grey held his breath as Beth swept towards him.
She stopped inches in front of him and touched his arm. Gold light glinted on the pale lashes framing her eyes, deep and turbulent as the Black Sea. Raw emotional energy
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