The Proposal & Solid Soul by Brenda Jackson Read Free Book Online

you know what you’ll have to do?”
    She looked up after taking a sip of her wine. “I’m not sure. I have a good attorney, but I have to admit my parents’ attorney is more experienced in such matters. In other words, he’s crafty as sin. I’m sure when my grandparents drew up my trust they thought they were looking out for my future because in their social circles, ideally, a young woman married by her twenty-sixth birthday. For her to attend college was just a formality since she was expected to marry a man who had the means to take care of her.”
    “And your parents have no qualms in forcing you to marry?”
    “No, not one iota,” she said without pause. “They don’t truly care about my happiness. All they care about is that they would be proving once again they control my life and always will.”
    He heard the trembling in her voice and when she looked down as to study her silverware, he knew her composure was being threatened. At that moment, something inside of him wanted to get up, pull her into his arms and tell her things would be all right. But he couldn’t rightly say that. He had no way of knowing they would be for her, given the situation she was in. Actually it was her problem not his. Still another part of him couldn’t help regretting that her misfortune could end up being his golden opportunity.
    “I thought I’d finally gotten free of my parents’ watchful eyes at college, only to discover they had certain people in place, school officials and professors, keeping tabs on me and reporting to them on my behavior,” she said, interrupting his thoughts.
    “And I thought, I truly believed, the money I’m getting from my trust fund and inheriting the ranch were my way of living my life the way I want and an end to being under my parents’ control. I was going to exert my freedom for the first time in my life.”
    She paused briefly. “Jason. I really love it here. I’ve been able to live the way I want, do the things I want. It’s a freedom I’ve never had and I don’t want to give it up.”
    They sat staring at each other for what seemed like several mind-numbing moments and then Jason spoke. “Then don’t give it up. Fight them for what you want.”
    Her shoulders slumped again. “Although I plan to try, it’s easier said than done. My father is a well-known and powerful man in Savannah and a lot of the judges are his personal friends. For anyone to even try something as archaic as forcing someone to marry is ludicrous. But my parents will do it with their friends’ help if it brings me to heel.”
    Once again Bella fell silent for a moment. “When I received word about Herman and confronted my father as to why he never told me about his life here in Denver, he wouldn’t tell me, but I’ve been reading my grandfather’s journals. He claims my father hated living here while growing up. His mother had visited this area from Savannah, met Herman and fell in love and never went back East. Her family disowned her for it. But after college my father moved to Savannah and sought out hismaternal grandparents and they were willing to accept him in their good graces but only if he never reminded them of what they saw as their daughter’s betrayal, so he didn’t.”
    She then straightened her shoulders and forced a smile to her lips. “Let’s change the subject,” she suggested. “Thinking about my woes is rather depressing and you’ve made lunch too nice for me to be depressed about anything.”
    They enjoyed the rest of their meal conversing about other things. He told her about his horse breeding business and about how he and the Atlanta Westmorelands had discovered they were related through his great-grandfather Raphel Westmoreland.
    “Was your grandfather really married to all those women?” she asked after he told her the tale of how Raphel had become a black sheep in the family after running off in the early nineteen hundreds with the preacher’s wife and all the other