Summer's Distant Heart - Laura Landon Page 0,17
she didn’t have an answer for him. But she did. From the expression on her face she was debating whether she wanted to share it or not.
“Go on, my lady,” he said as he relaxed in his chair. “Tell me why you think it wise of us to avoid each other.”
She took another drink from her goblet. “Perhaps because we seem to rub the wrong way.”
“Yes,” Hunter answered in a harsh whisper. “We do seem to rub the wrong way.”
“And the solution for this would be?”
Hunter shrugged his shoulders. “Perhaps there is no solution,” he said. “Perhaps we will only need to make an effort to tolerate each other as much as possible.”
“Yes,” she answered, then stopped when she seemed to hear a noise from the drive in front of the house. A noise Hunter hadn’t heard. She rose from her chair and went to the window, standing in the same spot where she’d stood the day before as she watched for her brother.
He didn’t want to remind her that they would leave in the morning whether this brother of hers was here or not.
She clasped her hands so tightly at her waist that her knuckles were white. Her muscles were braced so tautly he was sure if he walked up to her and pressed against her shoulders, the muscles beneath would shoot like springs from her flesh.
“Come and sit, my lady. Watching will do no good.”
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“What is it you’re so concerned over? That your brother won’t come and you’ll be left to face me alone?”
“He’ll come. I know he will.” She looked out the window yet again. “And even if he doesn’t, I won’t be alone with you. There’s Aunt Mildred, you know.”
Hunter walked to the window and stood beside her, though careful not to crowd. She didn’t notice him at first, and when she did, she jumped.
“Blast it all, what the devil is the matter?” he muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“I asked you what the matter was. You seem terribly nervous. And if I’m any judge of character, I would say you were hiding something from me.”
She spun to face him. The terror in her eyes told him he’d hit an exposed nerve.
“What is it you’re keeping from me?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do, Lady Atherton. And I’m not about to give up until I find out what it is.”
Her face lost what little color it previously possessed. His brother’s wife had a secret she was guarding and he would pursue her until he discovered what it was.
“Would you like to save us both a great deal of time and tell me now what you’re keeping from me?”
“Leave me alone!” she cried out. She clutched the side of the window as if she needed to hold on to something solid to steady herself. “Isn’t it enough that I have to worry about your father and what he will do if he discovers he has a grandson he wants to eliminate?”
“That won’t happen. I won’t let it.”
“You can’t make that promise. Your father wields too much power and influence. What match are you against his authority and manipulation?”
“Do not underestimate me, Lady Atherton. I have spent my whole life battling my father. The years I spent fighting the enemy in the war were not nearly as treacherous as one day battling my father.”
Hunter watched her eyes open in fright, then her hands clasped around her waist as if she needed to hold herself together. For a moment he regretted his harsh words, but he couldn’t allow himself to soften toward her.
“Do you really think your father would do his grandson physical harm?”
Her words reverberated in his mind, words he dared not answer. The admission seemed too outrageous. Too inconceivable. Too deadly.
How could he answer her question when he didn’t doubt for a moment the lengths to which his father would go to make sure the son of a commoner would never inherit the Trentridge dynasty?
Chapter 6
It was a fool’s errand, but try as she would, Lia found it impossible to abandon her post. For what seemed hours, Lia waited impatiently at the library window. She abandoned her watch long enough to go to the nursery to check on the babe, then returned to keep her vigil. It was nearly dark outside. Time was running out.
She didn’t know what she would do if she had to match wits with Lord Hunter Montclaire by herself. The only thing she could think of that would be