Falling Hard (Veronica's Secret) by Scarlet Rose Read Free Book Online Page B

She’d also said someone would die. Is that why my father is pushing this wedding so fast? Is he the one that dies? She wished she had the answers.
    She turned to face Benard. “I feel very lost right now.”
    “Lost?” He looked sincerely curious.
    “I’ve lost everyone that I love, and my father will die soon too.”
    Benard walked over and held his hands out to her. She placed her hands delicately into his warm palms.
    “Maybe, in time, you will come to love me, and you won’t be alone anymore.” He pulled one of her hands up and kissed the back of it.
    Veronica didn’t think that would ever happen, but she didn’t admit that to him. “Maybe.”
    Still, the war raged on in her mind. When she glanced at the bed, all she could see was her night with Aaron.
    She decided she needed a change of scenery.
    “Will you go for a walk with me?”
    “Sure. Where to?”
    Still holding onto his hand, she ushered him out the door of her room. “It’s a surprise.”
    She led him down to the main floor of the castle and toward a wing that had been all but deserted since her mother had died. It had been Queen Marianna’s special place, so her father left it undisturbed. Even the maids were kept away for the most part.
    Veronica missed it, though, because hidden in the very back was her mother’s private garden. She knew that the gardeners still tended it. Her father would have wanted it to remain as beautiful as his wife had left it.
    She led Benard there, feeling a little giddy from the aftereffects of the wine and her childhood memories of going to the garden to daydream.
    She stopped before a dark stone door and pulled Benard close to him. “I used to come here a lot when my mother was alive. It’s a magical place for me that holds nothing but wonderful memories.”
    Benard didn’t say anything, but he looked curious to see what lay beyond the stone door.
    She pushed open the door . A wave of floral scents drifted out. She pulled Benard onto a stone path, through beds of trees and flowers that stood taller than them both. Above them, the rain pattered against a glass ceiling that let in very little light. But Veronica knew that on a clear night, the moon and stars shone through.
    “My mother was gifted, though not many knew that ,” Veronica said. “She could’ve been a great sorceress, but she loved my father too much. So she kept her gifts a secret, but when she was here, she would use it to grow the flowers and bring beautiful birds to life.”
    Veronica stopped before a globe perched on a pedestal. She touched the globe with her finger and it lit up with a soft glow, revealing a path that wound through the garden, filled with countless varieties of colorful flowers.
    “This is beautiful.” Benard sounded truly amazed.
    She pulled him farther along the path and through an opening to the right , lighting another globe along the way. Before them, a luscious island of soft green grass floated in the middle of a ring of water. Brightly colored fish darted about in the lamp’s glowing light.
    She pulled him out onto the island over the little stone bridge that connected the m. Then she turned to face him.
    “I wanted to bring you here so that maybe we could start over fresh.”
    He stepped forward until he was only a few inches away from her. His hand reached up and lifted her chin up so he could look into her eyes. “I think that is a wonderful idea.”
    Veronica wondered if she could get lost in his eyes. They seemed to be the purest thing about him.
    “Will you lay here and relax with me for a while?”
    She expected him to look disappointed, but he didn’t. Instead he nodded and lay in the grass, gesturing for her to join him. She slid up beside him, facing him, with his arm wrapped around her back and her face resting on his chest.
    He smelled good.
     

Chapter 15
    Veronica opened a link to Benard’s thoughts. She could tell that he was relaxed too. He wanted her to be calm, but he also wanted her to