Swan's Grace by Linda Francis Lee Read Free Book Online Page B

Grayson locked his gaze on the older man. "We will straighten this out."
    "But what about the party?"
    Sophie looked back and forth between her father and Grayson. "Party? What are you talking about?"
    Conrad smiled grandly, seeming to forget the uneasiness of seconds before as excitement laced his words. "Your stepmother and I are holding a huge party at The Fens to announce your—"
    "Your homecoming," Grayson interjected, cutting Conrad off.
    Conrad's mouth hung open, then his eyes narrowed in anger, his face turning a mottled red. But in the end, he was smart enough not to defy the younger, more powerful man.
    "Call it what you like, but all I can say," Conrad finally managed, "is that this had better be
straightened out
soon." He gave a meaningful look to Grayson. "The party is next Saturday."
    Things would be straightened out, Grayson thought. But not here. Not with that suddenly haunted look in Sophie's eyes.

Chapter Four

    Emmaline Hawthorne, wife to Bradford, mother to Gray-son, Matthew, and Lucas, extended her white-gloved hand and gave the driver fifty cents plus a nickel tip. She sat in the carriage for a moment, her primly straightened spine flush against the cracked leather seat. That morning she had taken great care with her attire, slipping on a peach silk gown and her favorite winter-white cape with fur trim.
    It had been years since she had been out by herself, and it took a moment before she realized the driver wasn't going to help her alight.
    The man's rudeness didn't bother her, however. It actually made her smile that she was about the city, rubbing elbows with every sort of person.
    She was less thrilled a few minutes later as she was jostled and bumped on her way to the small building in the South End of Boston. But even that couldn't dampen her spirits. It had taken every ounce of courage she possessed to make these arrangements, telling her maid she was sick so she would be left alone. Bradford would be furious if he found out what she was doing.
    But her husband's anger paled in comparison to the sudden, disturbing feelings that had hit her a month before. Life was passing her by. It was as if she woke up one morning and wondered what she was doing. Her husband didn't need her, and he never had after she had brought him the substantial dowry that had allowed him to rebuild the Hawthorne family fortune. Her darling sons didn't need her any longer either. Being much like their father, her three boys had always been independent. Bradford had seen to that. God forbid he find one of them curled up in her arms as a child.
    But that was the past, and on that morning when she had woken up and wondered what she was doing with her life, she remembered the years of her girlhood. Years of love and gaiety. She doubted there was a soul in Boston who would believe she used to ride hell-for-leather down the country roads outside of town. She couldn't remember the last time anyone had seen her laughing out loud, or her long hair free.
    Certainly not her husband. His interest in her body had waned after the birth of their youngest child. She still remembered the night she had gone to him and he had turned her away, telling her that a proper woman didn't want to make love, only saw it as a duty.
    But she
was
proper. She had led committees and attended church and sewn altar cloths. She had raised awareness of the poor and had instituted a charitable foundation to see to the preservation of Boston's historic landmarks. She had been called the epitome of what all proper Boston Brahmins wanted their wives and daughters to be.
    Then why did she wake up in the wee hours of the morning with a sick feeling of emptiness in her heart? With desire running deep.
    She spent the first two weeks of her new awareness feeling guilty that she wasn't grateful enough for all that she had. When that sentiment failed to make headway in her mind, she then spent the second two weeks deciding what to do about it. It hadn't taken long to know