Honour This Day by Alexander Kent Read Free Book Online Page A

what was expected of him and his command.
    She turned suddenly and spoke directly to him. “You are very quiet, Sir Richard.”
    He met her gaze and felt his defence falter. She was just as striking, more beautiful even than he’d remembered. The sun had given her neck and shoulders a fine blush, and he could see the gentle pulse of her heart where the silk gown folded around it.
    One hand lay as if abandoned beside her glass, a folded fan close by. He wanted to touch it, to reassure himself or to reveal his own stupidity.
    What am I? So full of conceit, so shallow that I could imagine her drawn to me again after so long?
    He said instead, “It must be seven years.”
    Her face remained impassive. To anyone watching she might have been asking about England or the weather.
    â€œSeven years and one month to be exact.”
    Bolitho turned as the Viscount laughed at something Glassport had said.
    â€œAnd then you married him. ” It came out like a bitter accusation and he saw her fingers move as if they were listening independently.
    â€œWas it so important?”
    She retorted, “You delude yourself, Richard.” Even the use of his name was like the awakening of an old wound. “It was not so.” She held his gaze as he turned again. Defiance, pain, it was all there in her dark eyes. “I need security. Just as you need to be loved.”
    Bolitho hardly dared to breathe as the conversation died momentarily around him. He thought the first lieutenant was watching them, that an army colonel had paused with his goblet half-raised as if to catch the words. Even in imagination it felt like a conspiracy.
    â€œLove?”
    She nodded slowly, her eyes not leaving his. “You need it, as the desert craves for rain.”
    Bolitho wanted to look away but she seemed to mesmerise him.
    She continued in the same unemotional tone, “I wanted you then, and ended almost hating you. Almost. I have watched your life and career, two very different things, over the past seven years. I would have taken anything you offered me; you were the only man I would have loved without asking for security in marriage.” She touched the fan lightly. “Instead you took another, one you imagined was a substitute—” She saw the shot strike home. “I knew it.”
    Bolitho replied, “I thought of you often.”
    She smiled but it made her look sad. “Really?”
    He turned his head further so that he could see her clearly. He knew others might watch him for he appeared to face her directly, but his left eye was troubled by the flickering glare and the swooping shadows beyond.
    She said, “The last battle. We heard of it a month back.”
    â€œYou knew I was coming here?”
    She shook her head. “No. He tells me little of his government affairs.” She looked quickly along the table and Bolitho saw her smile as if in recognition. He was astonished that the small familiarity with her husband should hurt him so much.
    She returned her gaze to his. “Your injuries, are they— ?” She saw him start. “I helped you once, do you not remember?”
    Bolitho dropped his eyes. He had imagined that she had heard or detected his difficulty in seeing her properly. It all flashed through his mind like a wild dream. His wound, the return of the fever which had once almost killed him. Her pale nakedness as she had dropped her gown and folded herself against his gasping, shivering body, while she had spoken unheard words and clasped him to her breasts to repulse the fever’s torment.
    â€œI shall never forget.”
    She watched him in silence for some moments, her eyes moving over his lowered head and the dangling lock of hair, his grave sunburned features and the lashes which now hid his eyes, glad that he could not see the pain and the yearning in her stare.
    Nearby, Major Sebright Adams of Hyperion ’s Royal Marines was expounding on his