Gabriel's Angel by Nora Roberts Read Free Book Online

had been the right one.
    He wasn’t a gentle man, or even a contented man, but he was a kind one, and, she was certain, a man of his word. If they were using each other, her for sanctuary, him for art, it was a fair exchange. She needed to rest. God knew she needed whatever time she could steal to rest and recover.
    She hadn’t told him how tired she was, how much effort it took for her just to keep on her feet for most of the day. Physically the pregnancy had been an easy one. She was strong, she was healthy. Otherwise she would have crumpled long before this. But the past few months had drained every ounce of her emotional and mental reserves. The cabin, the mountains, the man, were going to give her time to build those reserves back up again.
    She was going to need them.
    He didn’t understand what the Eagletons could do, what they could accomplish with their money and their power. She’d already seen what they were capable of. Hadn’t they paid and maneuvered to have their son’s mistakes glossed over? Hadn’t they managed, with a few phone calls and a few favors called in, to have his death, and the death of the woman with him, turned from the grisly waste it had been into a tragic accident?
    There had never been any mention in the press about alcohol and adultery. As far as the public was concerned, Anthony Eagleton, heir to the Eagleton fortune, had died as a result of a slippery road and faulty steering, and not his criminally careless drunk driving. The woman who had died with him had been turned from his mistress into his secretary.
    The divorce proceedings that Laura had started had been erased, shredded, negated. No shadow of scandal would fall over the memory of Anthony Eagleton or over the family name. She’d been pressured into playing the shocked and grieving widow.
    She had been shocked. She had grieved. Not for what had been lost—not on a lonely stretch of road outside of Boston—but for what had been lost so soon after her wedding night.
    There was no use looking back, Laura reminded herself. Now, especially now, she had to look forward. Whatever had happened between her and Tony, they had created a life. And that life was hers to protect and to cherish.
    With the spring snow glistening and untouched as far as she could see, she could believe that everything would work out for the best.
    â€œWhat are you thinking?”
    Startled, she turned toward Gabe with a little laugh. “I didn’t hear you.”
    â€œYou weren’t listening.” He pulled the door closed behind him. “It’s cold out here.”
    â€œIt feels wonderful. How much is there, do you think?”
    â€œThree and a half, maybe four feet.”
    â€œI’ve never seen so much snow before. I can’t imagine it ever melting and letting the grass grow.”
    His hands were bare. He tucked them in the pockets of his jacket. “I came here in November and there was already snow. I’ve never seen it any other way.”
    She tried to imagine that, living in a place where the snow never melted. No, she thought, she would need the spring, the buds, the green, the promise. “How long will you stay?”
    â€œI don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.”
    She turned to smile at him, though she felt a touch of envy at his being so unfettered. “All those paintings. You’ll need to have a show.”
    â€œSooner or later.” He moved his shoulders, suddenly restless. San Francisco, his family, his memories, seemed very far away. “No hurry.”
    â€œArt needs to be seen and appreciated,” she murmured, thinking out loud. “It shouldn’t be hidden up here.”
    â€œAnd people should?”
    â€œDo you mean me, or is that what you’re doing, too? Hiding?”
    â€œI’m working,” he said evenly.
    â€œA man like you could work anywhere, I think. You’d just elbow people aside and go to