Dark Masquerade by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online Page B

control was on a tight rein.
    “Imagine our surprise,” he went on, turning the tiny sword in its scabbard over in his hands, “and yes, our dismay, when Felix wrote to tell us that he had met another woman and that he intended to marry her. By the time his letter reached us the deed was done. Naturally we waited to hear more. And then he was killed in battle. We were stunned. Again we waited. It seemed so unlikely. Impossible. I can’t think how to make you understand. You have no idea of how uneventful, how circumscribed by tradition and convention our lives are. We received Felix’s instructions written before the tragedy at Goliad and the machinery was set in motion to carry them out, but we felt we should move with caution. I considered going myself to Texas to see you, to investigate—”
    “In short to see what kind of woman your brother had married. Or did you think I had tricked him into marriage against his will?”
    “The idea had occurred to me.”
    “What made you decide not to come?
    “I was needed here. We decided to wait and communicate with you by mail. In addition we had not given up hope that Felix was still alive. Often there are mistakes made on the battlefields of distant wars fought in strange countries. We waited, I suppose, for a miracle to clear all difficulties.”
    He confessed his faults so dispassionately that it was hard to remain angry. Elizabeth could understand his reasons for avoiding a confrontation with the woman his brother had so unexpectedly married; she could even appreciate his frankness in speaking of them. But she could not quite forgive him or conquer her resentment. She got to her feet, but he detained her with a lifted hand.
    “There is one thing more. I will see to it that you receive your widow’s portion as quickly as possible, however our commission merchant and the attorneys who will attend to it will need proof of your identity. I assume you have something to prove you are who you say?”
    “Certainly,” Elizabeth replied, trying not to let the intentness of his dark eyes half-hidden behind thick lashes annoy her further. “There is the marriage record, a copy of it, and also the Brewster family Bible. I will bring them.”
    “That won’t be necessary.”
    “I insist.” Elizabeth started toward the door.
    “Wait. Since you are determined, we will send a servant. Your woman knows where to put her hand on the things you want?”
    “Yes.”
    Bernard summoned the butler and gave him his instructions. Elizabeth returned to her chair, and in a moment they heard the butler calling for a houseboy to carry the message upstairs. While they waited for the request to filter through the hierarchy of the house servants, Bernard removed the necessity of making conversation by opening the mail that lay on his desk. It had arrived that morning on the river packet, and it had been sent out to the house by special carrier.
    The sight of the letters reminded Elizabeth of the day the invitation to Oak Shade had arrived in the hand of a passing stranger. Ellen had been in bed. Excitement had brought back some of the color to the thin face above her swollen body. They had held a conference and decided to send to the Spanish Mission for a copy of the marriage record. It had seemed at the time only a natural precaution. That it should rankle to be asked to present it now was, Elizabeth recognized, a bit of perversity.
    It had been nearly two weeks before someone, a distant neighbor this time, came by to carry the message to the mission. He carried also the letter to the Delacroix from Ellen accepting their kind invitation on behalf of herself and her unborn child. She planned to go to them as soon as she recovered from her confinement. Ellen had not been proud, or rather she had been more certain of the generosity of the Delacroix than Elizabeth. The letter had also contained a vivid description of the destitution and lack of funds for the journey, a description Elizabeth found