Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand by Carla Kelly Read Free Book Online

her body. "I suppose I was foolish to think that we could keep this a secret until we stole away like gypsies," she murmured, "but I did hope for a few days!"
    Meggie shook her head. "We never thought to warn the girls." She sighed. "They wouldn't have understood, anyway."
    Roxanna nodded. "Lord Whitcomb is an indulgent uncle to them," she said, her bitterness surprising her. "And he is an upstanding landlord, and an exemplary parishioner, a justice of the peace noted for his fairness! Oh, it galls me, Meggie!"
    "Now what, Mrs. Drew?" the nursemaid asked, after the silence had stretched on too long.
    Roxanna squared her shoulders and opened the door. "I suppose it cannot be avoided." She stood for a moment outside the closed door to the sitting room, trying to borrow courage from some unknown quarter.
    "Should I go in with you?" Meggie asked, her eyes anxious.
    Roxanna shook her head, took a deep breath, and opened the door.
    Lord Whitcomb was on his feet in an instant, his eyes targeted on her face with a look of such outrage that it took ail her willpower not to bolt the room. In her whole life, no one had ever looked at her like that. She forced her feet to move her into the room, advancing even as her brother-in-law strode toward her.
    He stopped directly in front of her, so close that she could feel the heat from his body. Roxanna gritted her teeth but refused to step backward. You cannot have that satisfaction, she thought as he stared down at her, his breath coming in short bursts. To her intense satisfaction, he was forced to take a step backward when she refused to move.
    "Have you taken complete leave of your senses?" he roared at her.
    Roxanna covered her ears with her hands. "We do not shout in this house," she murmured.
    Without a word, Lord Whitcomb yanked her hands off her ears and held them pinned to her sides, then grasped her by the shoulders and shook her until the pins fell from her hair. "You idiot! You imbecile!" he shouted as he shook her. "That house is a perfect ruin and I will not allow you to move there! What can you be thinking?"
    With a strength she did not know she possessed, she wrenched herself from his grasp. "You have no say in what I do with my family," she said, wishing that her voice did not sound so puny and frightened.
    He grabbed her by the neck then, his fingers pulling her unbound hair until she cried out. "Oh, I do not?" he whispered. His face was so close to hers that she could see the pores in his skin. "I am meeting my solicitor at Moreland's dower house within the hour," he hissed at her. "Tibbie Winslow is a reasonable man. I'll send a cart Monday to move you and your goods to Whitcomb. Be packed and ready, you simple woman."
    He released her then and threw her back against the sofa, where she doubled her legs under her and put her hands to her face to protect herself. She shuddered as he came closer, then held her breath, praying for Meggie to open the door. But he only stood looking down at her, and when he spoke, his voice was different. It was softer, the malice cloaked in something much worse than rage. It was the voice of a lover, and it filled her with more terror than the fear of a beating. "Oh, Roxanna, you will be such a challenge to me." And then he was gone.

Chapter 4
    Roxanna stayed awake late that night, fearing to sleep because she knew she would dream about the dreadful interview with her brother-in-law. She had sat awake discussing the matter with Meggie until the nursemaid finally looked at her with bleary eyes and said that she had to sleep or she would drop down. Roxanna nodded and took herself off to bed, too, hoping that she was tired enough herself to fall into dreamless sleep.
    She could have saved herself the bother of undressing and putting on her nightgown. There was no opportunity to dream, because she did not sleep. She lay in her bed unable to relax, her eyes wide and staring into the dark, listening to the clock downstairs chime its way around the