Face to Face (The Deverell Series Book 2) by Susan Ward Read Free Book Online Page A

certainly not beyond their twenties.
    Against her will, Merry suffered facing a truth she did not wish to see. Is this what becomes of women who never marry? They are trapped here, with only each other, and their link to the world a man who is nothing to them. Is that what will become of me?
    “We shan’t go if you don’t want to, Merry,” said April softly then.
    Merry’s gaze shifted to Varian, and she said pointedly, “I will do as I am ordered.”
    The words came out more harshly than she intended and had an even harsher effect on the sisters. Merry rose from the table, without ceremony, and raced from the room. Her future had been sitting across the table from her and it was not a comforting thing to see.
    Merry made a quick flight up the stairs to her bedroom. Breathing heavily, she sank onto the floor before the fire in the hearth. She tried to contain her rioting emotions and failed at it dismally.
    What she learned of the world during this strange journey she was trapped on with Varian was not always kindly lessons. It did not occur to her until now how little of the world she had known before Varian. It was no less a disturbing confession to realize she had known even less about herself.
    Did any woman truly know herself before she loved a man? Merry wondered.
    She was brushing frantically at her tears when her bedroom door opened. Footsteps sounded behind her, and she forced her trembling form to perform an act of stillness. She knew it was Varian without looking. The spacious confines of her bedchamber seemed to shrink with his presence. She felt him lower to the floor, then he eased her back into his chest to be held the warm cocoon of his arms.
    “Why are you crying, Little One?” His whispering voice teased against her ear. The feel of him ran all through her. “Is it the prospect of a party? Regina? Or the sisters?”
    How effortlessly he could read her. She sniffed and tried to halt her careening emotions.
    “I don’t know,” she whispered disconcertedly.
    His lips touched her hair. “All will be well, Merry.”
    There were times when Varian’s arrogance was infuriating. This was one of those times. How could he say with such tempting certainty all would be well when she did not even know the circumstance of her fate.
    Her temper flaring, Merry snapped with more disquiet than she wanted. “All will be well for who? The spider or the fly?”
    She looked over her should at Varian.
    Attractive creases softly bracketed his smile. “Is that how you see us? Which one am I?”
    The telltale blush stained Merry’s cheeks like cheap rouge. It wasn’t the words, so much as how he said them, which sent her senses into greater disarray. And he was sitting too close, far too close, and his expression at times could be so cleverly misleading.
    His watching gaze was thorough, and Merry, having more than a nodding acquaintance with the swift processes of his mind, worked quickly from his embrace.
    “Was there something you wanted?” she said with dignity, and received back a long, hot stare.
    “I can think of no less than a hundred things. Would you like me to impart them to you?”
    “What I would like is for you to leave my bedchamber,” she said, her expression angry and sparkling at once.
    Varian’s hands found her shoulders in a movement that was swift and Merry was drawn back into him before she had time to stop him. His mouth on hers exploded the happy fiction that understanding Varian’s games would make her more able to fight him. Not breaking his kiss, he somehow managed to pull to the floor a pillow from the chair and maintain his embrace. He guided her downward until she was curled into his side with her cheek on his chest. His hand made a wayward caressing motion against her back.
    Lifting her chin so she could meet his eyes, he was smiling when he whispered, “You are a very stubborn girl, but you are starting to show promise.”
    Merry’s first instinct, prompted by the slumberous