The Desperate Love of a Lord by Jane Lark Read Free Book Online

her mouth opened to say the words. To tell him the truth. But he looked down, his gaze sweeping over her body, as it he’d developed a habit of doing all summer, and he saw the truth for himself. Her stomach was too round now for him not to see the convex rise beneath her dress.
    “My God!”
    “I was going to tell you.”
    “You were clearly not, Vi.”
    It was her turn to grasp his arm in plea. “Geoffrey.”
    His hand lifted and swept across his face. He did not look happy… He looked shocked – and angry again.
    “A child!” That was what this was all about. “A child… Good God. Violet?” Geoff knew from his sister’s pregnancies how far gone she must be. She was surely past mid-term. How had he not noticed it in London? He must have been blind. “I suppose it is mine.” The words slipped from his mouth in accusation. He was angry. Why had she kept this from him? Run from him? Hidden from him?
    Horror filled her eyes. “Of course it is yours…” Then her words drifted and her eyes suggested she regretted her admission…What on earth was going on?
    He touched her cheek, his palm flat against it, as his thumb gripped beneath her chin. This woman had the same face as Violet, her eyes were blue and her hair the colour of spun gold, with the perfect pale skin he knew covered her entire body. Yet, it was not Violet speaking to him. It was not the confident, dressed in vanity woman he’d known in London, whose whole demeanour said come-love-me .

    He took a breath. “Why are we here, Vi? Why not tell me this in London. There is no one else?” He was completely unable to fathom what was going on here. “Why are you dressed in black? I don’t understand.”
    His touch fell to the clear outline of a small bulge beneath her gown. How had he not noticed, for God’s sake? He had made love with her only just over a week ago. But then his sister had had pregnancies like that, usually with boys, when the child suddenly turned and shifted to show more prominently.
    Was this his son? His fingers spread wide over Violet’s stomach, and my God , he felt the child move.
    Looking up he met Vi’s gaze and the blue shone with doubt, but even so, her hand covered his. “It is yours Geoff. I only knew for certain I was with child before I left.”
    “But you must have suspected. Were you denying it?”
    “Yes.”
    “Violet.” His fingers left her stomach and instead he held her, tightly.
    Her face buried into his neck and then he heard her sob and felt her shoulders shake. Violet was not a woman to weep, she was strong and brash. She was known for being callous, not this.
    He held her for a little while and then his fingers tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
    “I’m here, darling. No need to worry now.” She had been enduring this burden alone. Worrying. Alone. But why? Why had she run? Did she not trust him? “Darling, I’ll say it again, why are we here?”
    She pulled away and her blue eyes shimmered with tears as she looked up at him. Those eyes which had always burned with self-confidence and said take me as I am or go away, now looked vulnerable and afraid.
    “I will not let you take the child from me,” she whispered as his fingers cradled her cheek. “I want it, I want to keep it.”
    Ah. “Violet –”

    “I shan’t listen to any arguments Geoff. I will not give the child up. I’ll disappear again if I must.”
    So this had been Violet crafting a new life for herself, one in which she could be a mother without judgement. “The blacks…” he answered.
    “I want my child to be accepted and respected.”
    “Our child, Vi. This is our child.”
    Her chin tilted, her old fire returning. “It is mine. I’ll not give it up.”
    He took a hold of her hands. “I am not asking you to. Have I said such a thing?”
    She shook her head, sighing and appearing uncertain again, and so unlike Violet. Was it him she was uncertain of – or them? But was that surprising, they had never discussed any