His Michaelmas Mistress by Marly Mathews Read Free Book Online

going to go away easily. He will hound you, Julia.”
    “Let him try,” she sighed. Her heart broke, as she remembered how much she had loved Charles. She had placed him on a pedestal, and held him to a high ideal. All other men had paled in comparison, until she’d met Freddie, and then, then, Freddie had become her Prince—her Knight in Shining Armour. And though he wasn’t born a nobleman, he had a noble bearing, and treated her so tenderly.
    “I think…” Beatrice paused. “You have to deal with your past to move on with your future. No matter how much you do not want to reconcile with Lord Charles, you must at least hear his side of the story. I tend to think he is telling us a Banbury story, but if anyone can find out the truth from him, it is you, and if he sticks to his story, then, I suppose he is being honest with all of us.”
    “I don’t know if I can get that close to him without being tempted.”
    “Oh, I think you can, Julia. You sell yourself short. I believe you are truly in love with your Freddie, and that kind of love can’t die an easy death. Trust me, I know.”
    She looked away from her mother, and resumed watching the landscape go by. They would be back at Castleton Court shortly, and her life would go back to the way it had been before she had met Freddie.
    It would go back to being humdrum.

Chapter Five
     
    Almost a fortnight had passed by in a blur.
    Julia had cloistered herself away in her bedchamber, and she’d fought emerging, even when Rose and Iris paid her calls. She couldn’t face anyone. Her wedding day had turned into a spectacle that she prayed had been a nightmare, and yet, every morning she woke up, it remained unchanged.
    It was the herald of things to come. She couldn’t shake her feelings of torment. She was broken hearted, and nothing anyone could do, or say, could shake her despondency.
    Charles had sent her several missives, and she had left them unopened. She couldn’t face it. She couldn’t put herself through that kind of hell at the moment, as she still mourned Freddie’s absence in her life.
    The missives laid on her escritoire and almost mocked her. What sort of lies would be found within? And if they were not lies…could she face the truth?
    She sat on the edge of her bed, and stared at them. Her family had always called her their jewel. She had always been the shining light with her irrepressible gay demeanor, and she knew she worried them all by sulking and keeping to herself.
    A lazy knock on her bedchamber door made her sigh. “What do you want, Richard?”
    “I…uh…well, Mama and I would like to see you at breakfast.”
    “Mama rarely takes breakfast anywhere, but in her bed,” she retorted.
    “Well,” he cleared his throat. “Not this morning. This morning, she has decided to take breakfast with us, and she wants you there. Get along, Julia. Smart’s the word, sharp’s the action.”
    “That’s sharp’s the word, and quick’s the action, Richard,” she said tiredly.
    “Is that so?” he said. “Hmm…I didn’t know that.”
    She listened closely, and heard him shuffling away. She really had to have her life in shambles, if her brother was concerned about her. He hardly ever took an interest in anything, and the fact that he seemed worried about her enough to come and address her on his own, told her she had to be acting quite poorly these last few days and yet—she cared not.
    She looked down at herself. She wore her nightgown, and she wasn’t fit to be downstairs taking her first meal of the day with her family in such a sorry state. Her hair was an ungodly mess, and she looked bloody horrible. She didn’t feel like changing out of her nightgown, so keeping to the defiant attitude she’d maintained since her wedding day that wasn’t, she walked over to her wardrobe and reached for her lavender coloured housecoat. Her mother would be horrified by her appearance, but then, her mother never changed out of morning dresses when