The Delicate Matter of Lady Blayne by Natasha Blackthorne Read Free Book Online

just the right way to put it. “He was a brash young man. He stepped beyond the bounds once and I rebuffed him. His pride was injured. It was no great matter.”
    There was a long pause, then Dr. Meeker let his breath out slowly. “So, now you will keep secrets from me?”
    Secrets.
    Everyone kept secrets. Everyone had a right to their own mental privacy.
    Except for Sunny. She had proven herself undeserving of keeping her own secrets.
    Trust, once broken, was the hardest thing to earn back.
    The bed ropes creaked softly as he sat near her. Once, she had taken so much comfort from his presence. His understated, refined masculinity, enhanced by his soothing voice and calm, intelligent personality, had drawn her to him.
    Now, something within her recoiled at his closeness.
    And the refined, dignified features, the narrow nose and thin lips, reminded her more and more of a reptile.
    “There’s nothing to keep secret,” she lied. Yes, there had been a time when she’d been utterly lost, when she’d told Meeker all. Things she hadn’t thought she’d ever tell another living soul.
    Things no lady should ever mention.
    But some secrets were too dear. And unaccountably, it felt as though she would be betraying James to tell anyone of the shocking liberties he had taken. The scandalous caresses they had exchanged that one night in the Landbrae garden.
    “He was a very passionate young man, eh?”
    She started. “What makes you say that?”
    “Because, my dear, I know you.” He laughed softly. “Vain girl! Vain, needy, desperate girl! A wife’s place is to serve and obey, not to be needed with desperate passion.”
    She closed her eyes and compressed her lips. Yes, he knew all her weaknesses. Her selfish sense of disappointment in her marriage, something she’d never dared admit to anyone else.
    He tapped his fingers on her hand. “I can easily surmise what happened. James Blayne saw the unnatural hunger in you. He ran. Believe me, Catriona, he ran.”
    He ran.
    The words echoed in her ears with damning accusation.
    James had stayed away from Landbrae. Away from Scotland entirely. Even when he’d had leave between assignments, he’d chosen to stay in London. Aunt Frances said it was because all the light-skirts were more plentiful and cheaply acquired in London.
    Sunny laughed softly, hearing the wicked lilt, the womanly bravado that came from someplace within her that felt alien. But it covered her weaknesses in moments like this. “You think he ran from me?”
    “Any sane man would have.”
    “But I was just girl.”
    “I am sure the seeds of your current state were there. Under the surface and visible to others. You must learn to cool your passions. You must sublimate that unholy passion of yours.”
    Dr. Meeker took her hand in his.
    Sunny stared at her bare hand, folded between two gray gloves of fine kid leather. She could imagine the cold, clammy flesh, the gnarled hands with the bright blue veins beneath the cloth.
    She shuddered. Oh God, those deathly cold hands.
    “You cannot hope to recover without me,” he intoned gently but firmly.
    She nodded. But she still wouldn’t look at him. Wouldn’t let him probe for her secrets.
    “I always have your best interests at heart. Do you think I don’t care? Do you think because I am an old man that I am made of stone?”
    Her throat began to burn. There had been a time when this man had saved her from herself. A time when she had seriously considered the supremest sin and he had pulled her back from the abyss.
    Was she so ungrateful now?
    “I do care for you, Catriona. I do. Do you realize that?”
    She swallowed, hard, and nodded. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. She was so ungrateful.
    Ungrateful!
    “Yet today you don’t trust me.” His voice was smooth as silk.
    What could she say? She had begun to distrust his methods for some time now. However, most days, she rejected those doubts. Oh, she was ungrateful to distrust this man who had worked