AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Uncle? Do not call me that. You shame me. I have had your aunt pack your bags, and have put a pouch of bills in your purse. It should be enough to see you back to your Devon residence and keep you until you can apply to receive your competence there. If you are frugal, the money should last until you find work. I had sent for you believing I was doing my duty, believing you were but a maid in need of protection. I looked to the proprieties, but you are an ingrate. I can have no scruples regarding your future. I have no niece. You are to me less than a stranger.”
He was sending her home. Thank goodness there had been just enough inheritance to maintain her small home while she was gone. She had thought he might send her off under guard somewhere, someplace where she would have difficulty escaping. Such was his nature. His decision to send her back to Devon made her sigh with relief.
So he and her aunt would no longer be a part of her life. What was in that? They had never been a part of her life. She would have no family, but she would have her child and Godwin. It was all she needed.
Also, her uncle obviously didn’t know about the cottage Godwin maintained in the woods—she would go there, and not to Devon!
She would take her bags
and what coins her aunt had packed away for her and leave immediately on foot. It would take her less than twenty minutes to walk back there.
“You are what you are,” she told her uncle. “Society is what it is. I am not governed by such things. I know what is truly right and wrong. Happiness was a thing denied to his lordship because of Sara. Happiness was denied to you because my mother did not choose you over your brother…” She saw the shock and anger on his face.
“Yes, Uncle, I know. You wanted my mother and hate me because I look so much like her. There is a reason she chose your brother, and we both know what it was. Heart. He had heart and you do not. You treat your wife like a servant and you treat your servants like slaves. You say you are a man of God, but I believe God knows better. What you are is a bitter old man, and you will never know true happiness.”
She turned and slowly, shoulders straight, started to walk out of the room. She turned when she opened the door and inclined her head. “Goodbye, Uncle.”
He watched her leave. The door closed at her back. Her words had struck a nerve. For a moment, he thought back to his youth. Had he ever known happiness? Yes, as a young man…the first time he had spent an afternoon with Heather’s mother. How her smile had lit him up and made him believe he could do anything…be anything. But then his brother had entered the picture and she had eyes for no other.
Damn the girl!
And even he knew not which girl he spoke of. Perhaps both.
~ Six ~
THE DAY HAD PROGRESSED, SHE would soon accomplish her goals, Sara thought with a smile that was cold and calculating. She was proud of herself. She had accomplished so very much in so little time.
She sat her horse well, her dark blue riding hat atop her yellow curls was angled fashionably. Her blue riding jacket hugged her body and her matching skirt flowed dramatically over her bay horse’s glistening body.
Two men rode toward her. She urged her horse forward to meet them. One of the two men was well known to her and when their eyes met, she smiled.
He sidled his horse up beside her own and leaned in to say, “My lady, looking lovely as ever today.”
She merely inclined her head. “I have had quite a day and am anxious to get it all sewn up right and tight,” she answered. Indeed, first she had visited with the dower Mrs. Abernathy, who had been surprised by her visit but greedy to hear the gossip. She had made a show of distress while she told her tale of woe. Sara had been clever enough to allow the widow to think going to the vicar with this information was her idea. She even demurred saying she had no wish to upset the vicar and allowed Mrs. Abernathy to insist.
The veil of Sara’s riding hat was drawn across her face, as immediately upon leaving Mrs. Abernathy she rode into town and made her way to the weathered and not quite reputable establishment known as the Cat & Fiddle.
Sara tensed as she looked around, for she did not wish to be seen. Satisfied that none of the local country gentry were about, she meandered into the tavern and drew quite a few looks her way, as it was not the sort of establishment a lady of quality frequented.
It was there that she and Colin saw one another.
She did not know who he was, but immediately had the feeling that he would be just the person to help her. Later, she would discover he knew who she was.
Even now, looking at him, she was well pleased with her choice.
He had been bold when he got up from his chair and walked over to her and said, “My lady, may I escort you to a quiet corner?”
She had inclined her head and allowed him to do so.
They sat for a moment and he said, “What do you need, my lady?”
“More than you can imagine,” she answered, flirting with her eyes and her tone.
She was well pleased at his reaction, for he sucked in air and bent in closer. “Whatever my lady needs, I am ready.”
He looked like a rugged sailor, yet he had breeding and his English was genteel. His manners were intriguing as he seemed a rogue, but was he up to what she needed him to do? He put up his hand to the tavern keeper and asked her, “Ale?”
She inclined her head, thinking, why not?
