Swept Away by Phoebe Conn Read Free Book Online

his way inside. “Eden begged me not to reveal what we discussed, but I’ll not allow you to continue to imagine that was a romantic interlude you saw out on the terrace. Eden took me aside to ask about you. She has my penchant for honesty, it seems, and wanted to know your intentions without having to suffer the embarrassment of asking you such a question.”
    “My intentions?” Stunned, Alex collapsed into a brocade armchair that promised the only comfort he was likely to find that night.
    Raven yanked off his tie and pulled it through his fingers like a rope he intended to fashion into a noose. To have to plead Eden’s cause struck him as the cruelest of ironies. “You asked permission to call on her, so she naturally assumed your interest was a romantic one. She cares for you, Alex. She can’t help but be confused about your intentions when you’ve been so attentive, but haven’t given her the affection she obviously craves.”
    “What did you tell her?”
    Raven began to pace, his stride long and smooth despite the turmoil he felt inside. “Nothing of any consequence. You’re the one who should speak with her. She’s obviously taken with you, as I think you are with her as well. It may not be what you planned or expected, but now that it’s happened, you must deal with her fairly. You owe her that much, Alex. You know that you do.”
    Alex closed his eyes and rested his head against the back of the chair. He had had such high hopes for their stay in London, but now he felt only despair. His chest ached, but it was not from exertion, merely from the sad realization of how badly his plan to find a bride for Raven had gone awry. “When Eleanora died, I never thought I’d ever love another woman, and I haven’t, not until now. You’re right, of course. Eden does deserve an explanation of some sort, although I don’t know what I can possibly tell her that will make any sense.”
    “You must tell her the truth,” Raven insisted emphatically. “Everything about Eden is refreshingly honest and real, you can’t fabricate some convenient lie for a woman like her. It would be too great an insult.”
    Alex was too concerned with his own dilemma to recognize how much Raven had just revealed about his feelings. “I don’t want her pity,” he murmured softly.
    Raven came to a halt and turned back to face him. “It will not be pity that she feels, but rage. Rage that so many lesser men have been allowed to grow old while you’ll not live past your prime.”
    Even as a child of eight, Raven had displayed a wisdom far beyond his years. While Alex frequently took pride in the fact he had raised him, there had been many occasions, like this one, when he knew Raven would have grown up to be a remarkable man in all respects even if they had never met. He reluctantly agreed that Eden deserved to hear the truth, as indeed she had in the beginning.
    “I’ll call on her tomorrow afternoon,” Alex announced solemnly. “I know I can trust her to keep the perilous state of my health a secret. It would make my stay here unbearable if the fact I have so little time left were widely known.”
    “I’m ready to go home now.”
    “I know that you are, but not yet. There are three million people in London. There has to be a woman for you among them. I’d like for you to look awhile longer.”
    “As you wish,” Raven agreed, but he knew Eden would be so heartbroken to learn the man she loved might not see another summer that she would never notice him. He had known from the outset their trip to London had been a mistake, but each new day convinced him he had badly underestimated the potential for disaster. Alex looked not only troubled, but pale as well, and he could not help but worry about him. “You should go to bed.”
    “In a moment or two,” Alex promised, but once alone he remained seated, trying to understand why the love that had eluded him for so many years had come too late. Until recently he had considered