Abigail's Secret (A Whimsical Select Romance Novella) by Tamara Ternie Read Free Book Online Page B

between Brice and myself, but the instant you reminded him of Tess and my dowry, he couldn’t leave the room fast enough.”
    Thomas smiled. “Indeed, he did.”  He walked to her and gently wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “But who was the first person he saw to safety when that first shot rang out?  It wasn’t the one he thought held his fortune, was it?”
    Indeed it wasn’t, Abigail appreciated.  Perhaps she’d give Brice a few more days before determining his lack of worthiness in receiving her heart.

CHAPTER FIVE
     
                  Four days had passed and Abigail hadn’t seen hide or hair of Brice Winslow.  She discreetly inquired in town but no had seen him in days.  She had planned on checking several other businesses that he may have frequented, but with the crowds in town for the Abigail Affair , she couldn’t make her way pass the thresholds without waiting in line.  Instead, she took her concerns to Thomas, but as the shopkeepers had done, he brushed her worries off as unnecessary although he’d nearly been killed days before.  Thomas tried to convince her that Brice was seeing to his labors, reminding her that he had a responsibility to his plantation.  Yet despite his lack of concern, Abigail fretted over his wellbeing.  Although the Winslow Corn Plantation sat outside the city and was a good twenty minute ride, Abigail set to the task of making her way there.
    The lane that led to his modest farmhouse was narrow and framed on either side by overgrown stalks of corn.  From the distance, Abigail saw a Conestoga wagon pulled in front of his home.  She wondered if perhaps he had guests who arrived from out of town or if Brice Winslow decided to pull stakes and leave Mecklenburg.
    Abigail gnawed on her bottom lip and questioned whether she should have come.  After all, the last she saw Brice he had nearly kissed her.  What if he thought her true intent was for the purpose of receiving it now?  The thought made her consider turning her rig around and set back home.  She gently pulled back the reigns and slowed her horses to a stop.  She looked toward his house and saw Brice near the wagon fiddling with the canvas cover.  A young woman ran to Brice just as Abigail had made the wavering decision to make her way to him.  The woman was slender and dressed in a modern blue walking dress that perfectly fit her curves.  Even the black laced ruffles that tiered down her back couldn’t hide the woman’s shapeliness. Although Abigail was nearly as thin as the woman, she couldn’t help but begrudge the woman for her size due to habit.  The woman jumped into Brice’s arms and Abigail glared at the happy couple before her.  The blue ribbons on the woman’s straw hat flowed in the air as Brice twirled her around in his arms.  After a moment, they stopped and hugged.  She expected the anger but not the sickening feeling within the pit of her stomach.  Not only did she feel betrayed, but she felt for Tess’s unwarranted disapproval as well.
    “You scoundrel,” she harshly whispered under her breath.  The lane was narrow and Abigail knew it’d be a difficult task to turn her wagon around, especially unseen and unheard.  There was no doubt that she’d take quite a few of his corn stalks with her in the process.  But she didn’t care.  She couldn’t face him.  Seeing him with another woman so intimately reminded her of the horrible events that occurred prior to her leaving Mecklenburg. And here he was, again, making a fool out of her.  “Not this time, Mister Winslow,” she muttered.  She slapped the reins onto the horses’ backs and hoped that they’d equal her determination in wanting to hastily leave.
    The ruckus she made in the process gained Brice and his companion’s attention.   He had called out something to her, but Brice was too far away for his words to take on distinction.  Not that she cared what he had to say.  All she wanted was to remove