tears when I asked her how she liked her new home. I believe he mistreats her, though / have no proof. I could see it in her eyes, the disillusionment and pain. Like Peggy's eyes. Why would a man bring a wife to the Amazon Valley only to mistreat her? I wanted to break him in half, but of course I said nothing and damned myself for the rest of the day.
"You're a fool," Caroline told herself aloud as she felt her heart soften toward him again. Her mind was already formulating excuses for his behavior.
To be honest, she had provoked him, albeit unintentionally. She had meant to flirt with him but had only succeeded in angering him, and even when she'd realized how angry he had become, she hadn't been able to stop. Her innuendo and double-edged questions had pushed him beyond endurance. What had she expected? She'd cornered him and she had suffered the consequences. It was a mistake she would be careful not to make in the future. She wasn't about to give up, not just yet.
#####
"Patrao is not hungry?" Ines asked reproachfully.
Jason glanced up from his plate to see Ines standing at the end of the dining room table, frowning at him. He realized that he had hardly eaten a bite but had been rolling his food around on the plate instead. Dropping his fork, he pushed the plate away as if it were something odious.
"No, I'm not hungry," he growled. The clock on the wall struck the noon hour. "Where is Mrs. Sinclair?"
"She say she eats in her room." Ines cleared his plate away. "I am thinking you are not nice to her."
"Mind your own business, Ines," Jason growled, pushing his chair back from the table.
Ines snorted. "Man don't know what's good for him."
Jason stalked through the open dining room door, trying not to let Ines's words needle him. He'd always treated her more like a friend or family member than a servant, and now he was suffering the consequences. Now she thought she knew him better than he knew himself.
He just wanted to be left alone. That was why he'd come to the jungle in the first place.
There would be no activity on the fazenda for the next three hours as the natives observed the customary siesta. When he'd first arrived in the Amazon Valley, Jason had tried to defy the midday heat. He'd soon learned the error of his ways from the exhaustion his labors produced.
Normally, Jason passed the time relaxing on one of the unused patios of the beneficio, napping beneath one of the several palm trees planted there if he'd had a particularly restless night. And even though last night certainly qualified, he knew he wouldn't sleep today. He strode out onto the patio, willing himself not to glance up at the door on the second floor. At the fountain, he splashed water over his face to clear his head, then ran his hands through his hair, slicking it back off his face.
Damn her. She'd turned the tables on him again. He'd meant to show her what he was, what he was capable of so that she would stay out of his way. He'd meant to frighten her, but when he succeeded, the self-loathing in the pit of his stomach had nearly devoured him. Maybe he didn't have a taste for violence any more.
You'll end up just like your good-for-nothing father, his uncle William Sinclair's voice taunted him from the past. Just like your father.
Could a man change his destiny? Could he escape his birthright?
A shiver trembled up his spine and set his neck to tingling. Someone was watching him. He jerked around to find Caroline sitting on a bench behind him. He released a sigh of relief mixed with displeasure. He'd been disappointed and even a little angry when she hadn't appeared for luncheon, but now he found he didn't want to face her again so soon. What could he say to her; how should he approach her? He'd be damned if he'd apologize.
"I don't mean to intrude," she said in a voice that dripped honey. "I usually spend the afternoons here reading."
She had donned a light cotton dress and come to the patio to pass the afternoon. It had not been her intention to force her presence upon her husband again. She didn't relish the thought of facing him so soon after her humiliation. But she'd spent far too much time fleeing to her room, and she wasn't about