Married: The Virgin Widow by Deborah Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

What about the three thousandpounds he settled on you before your marriage? It was quite some time ago. Perhaps you forgot about it.”
    Guilt had never been written so plain as on Laura’s ghostly pale face. For a moment she seemed too mortified to speak. Or perhaps the accumulation of lies on her tongue had finally turned it to stone. Ford waited with anticipation to see how she would answer his charge.
    Then, as suddenly as they had blanched, her features grew livid. She snatched her hand away from his arm. “What do you know of my personal finances and how did you find out?”
    How dare she cast him in the wrong after all she’d done! “The subject came up during my meeting with Repton. Perhaps you should have warned him your settlement was meant to be kept secret.”
    “It was meant to be kept private !” Laura clamped her arms tight to her sides, her hands balled into fists. “You had no right—”
    “I have every right.” Ford rapped out each word, like flint striking flint. “You gave me the right when you pleaded poverty to impose upon my hospitality.”
    For an instant he thought she might strike him with one of her clenched fists. He pictured himself grabbing her wrists to restrain her, pulling her close so he could stare deep into her eyes, then…
    Just as his blood was pounding in his ears, Laura deprived him of his expected sport by subduing the flicker of passion he had roused.
    Expelling a quivering breath, she clasped her hands in front of her and answered in measured tone. “You make it sound as if I lied about that. I did not. The money Cyrus settled on me is long gone. Do you suppose Iwould have allowed my mother and sisters to live as we have these past months if I had three thousand pounds?”
    A ring of sincerity in her voice tempted Ford to believe her. But the way her eyes darted as she spoke told a different story. Ford was about to observe that he would not put anything past her, when he suddenly recalled the reason he had brought her here. Satisfying though it might be to expose her lies, he did not want to risk making her angry enough to thwart his plans.
    Before he could find a way to back down gracefully, Laura provided him with the diversion he needed. “Besides, money is only one of the reasons my family has stayed on at Hawkesbourne, and not the most pressing, either.”
    Ford cocked one eyebrow. “What is the most pressing reason, pray?”
    “Mama’s health, of course. She has been bedridden for the past few years. Her doctor warned me that a move of any distance could do her great harm.”
    Ford did not doubt that, for he had seen the truth with his own eyes. Though Mrs Penrose had put on a brave show, he could tell her time was running out. “I am sorry to hear it.”
    “Then you will let us stay?” For the first time since his return, a genuine smile lit Laura’s face.
    Its luminous magic bewitched Ford. For a wondrous instant, he relived a golden moment from his past, when he had stood on this very spot preparing to propose to his beloved Laura.
    The beginning of a bemused smile was all the encouragement she needed to continue. “We take up very little room. I promise we will stay out of your way andnot be any trouble. In such a large house, you need hardly know we are there.”
    Her eager rush of words shattered the spell that bound him. Heartbreak, betrayal and bitterness stung him again like a swarm of angry wasps, their venom all the more potent for the fleeting reminder of what he’d lost. Though he could never get that back again, he would get something to compensate him.
    “I should like to assist your family, of course.” He steeled himself against Laura’s dangerously convincing look of gratitude. “Though, for the sake of propriety, if I am to provide you with a home, I must insist upon doing it as…your husband.”
    He watched her face with greedy relish as his words sank in. Her eyes grew wide and her lips fell open in a faint gasp that brought him