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CHAPTER ONE
“You knohy I have called you here, do you not?”
Mouth tight and hands daintily knit at her middle, Anna Rone measured every intake of air as she stared at the man who had fathered her She had not returned to Wellhaven but thirty minutes past and already he had suht made her stomach coil
“Then we shall make this brief” Rush Martin rose froe desk, the hazy afternoon sun casting forlorn shadows across the book-laden shelves “Charles Worth has asked for your hand in e”
Rush shifted his mouth side to side, as if he chewed on the words he prepared to speak Never once aze from hers, he brushed past all formalities or any fatherly sentiment “I trust you have learned from your past mistakes” He stopped only inches from her, not even the hint of a s tap on her shoulder, he loo his words “You have another opportunity before you Do not disappoint ain”
Bleeding sincerity through her smile, Anna masked the hatred He had not seen her in three years and these were the first words he chose to speak? But then, why should such a thing surprise her? “ForgiveI did as you wished”
“Only after any bookshelves and exotic trinkets that lined her father’s study oozed an unwelcome aura that matched well the dry brown of Rush’s eyes He dropped his hand fro his features “Do not feign ignorance Enough shame has come upon this family in the past ten years because of you and your brother I will not have any more of your actions further tarnish our reputation”
A sharp laugh burst from her lips, but she could produce no words He would iain, would he? She would not submit Not this time But the means of escape, the way in which her heart’s desire would be granted had yet to enlighten her mind Lord, I pray thee, show me a way
Only his lips moved while the rest of his face remained vacant when he answered “I expect a Martin to know their place It seems you have never known yours”
“Perhaps I was sinment” She stared at hiht, so o, consumed her vision and crashed upon her like apast, ribbons ofbreath of her mount as she raced to freedoht have been and would never be when her flight was discovered And thwarted
She snapped fro for his daughter, would subject her to a e devoid of all that would provide the necessities of life And I no more than a child”
“You were sixteen, hardly a child! And after ten years of ht to kno fortunate you are Even in death your husband thought of your welfare, just as I always did, though you choose not to believe it” Voice booestured to the door “Edwin Rone gave you everything you could ever desire Every necessity he provided”
“Aye” Anna answered as calardens over afternoon tea “Physical necessities to be sure, but not love Not caring and devotion and companionship Not kindness and sincerity Not those necessities that a happy rasp of co upward “I was his ornament Someone to hold his ar table” Voluaze “Do I not have a say in ainst such a ainst it now”
Face suddenly crier His voice scraped so low it rumbled the floor at her feet “You will notof hi else” A cloud drifted past the sun, shading the opulent study with heavy gloo norant than I believed Anna, can you not see? My actions are securing a way that your barren ill not be a hindrance to your finding a companion If I did not do so you would have no one to care for you—no roof over your head, no food in your belly”
Throat too thick to speak, Anna stared down at the Persian rug beneath her shoes Closing her eyes, she found the ever-ready place in herto it as he continued “Anyone who knows the family—and here, that is nearly everyone that matters—knows the illnesses you suffered as a child They know you cannot bear children What man wants a woman who cannot provide a son?”
Glancing up, she soothed the tender parts of her that shrunk back in his presence, before nudging the resolve “I a a husband But perhaps if you allowed —”
“Do not begin to suggest you do not need ave you your pleasant looks and without that no one would have you at all” His eyes trailed her face as if he were inspecting a piece of fine china for cracks “You have grown older Still pleasant enough, but at six and twenty you are lucky to have any man interested in you at all” He stepped nearer “And listen well I will not abide any more of your—”
“If you are worried that I shall once again atteer I have no intention of doing so” She lied as big as the heavy sun in the sky But her years with Edwin had taught her hen to s I accept the arrangement”
No emotion to be seen on his face or in his eyes, Rush stepped back and h-backed chair, he blinked “Then perhaps you are not as foolish as I believed” He reached for the quill and dotted it in the silver inkwell “You will make Lord Worth a fine wife, as you did your first husband And the fortune you take with you will give added stock to the Martin na of France”
Anna clutched her hands tighter As if I care for such
things The trappings of wealth have never held interest for me
He scrolled so across the paper at his desk al merely feet away Anna’s chest threatened to collapse, but she inhaled, searching out those happy childhood ht smiles to her sorrowed past Across the room on the wall, a portrait of Sa and handso his red officer’s unifor, vital Alive Not as he had left them, in the shame of self-inflicted death
“Do not think it” Rush looked up and folded the paper “Do not even begin to think it”
“I’ skills had so sharpened over the years that even she alh she knew exactly what heelse