Tides of Love (Seaswept Seduction Series) by Tracy Sumner Read Free Book Online Page B

or the latest catch. Inane, completely harmless conversation.
    Hell, he might as well practice his rusty skills on Henri Beaumont.

 
     
     
    Chapter 3

     
    "We must console ourselves with the
    comparatively few things which come up entire."
    C. Wyville Thomson
    The Depths of the Sea
     
     
    You cannot force me , Elle thought to herself, her father's voice dissolving in her ears like mist in the sunlight. Her weekly dinners with her father were quickly becoming comparable to torture.
    "Marielle-Claire, are you listening?"
    Reaching for her wineglass, Elle drained it in one swallow. Her father kept a bottle of Bordeaux in the storeroom of Christabel's restaurant and insisted on drinking from his own crystal.
    "Daughter, are you listening?"
    "You cannot force me," she said, a kaleidoscope of color glittering across the tablecloth as she lowered the beveled glass.
    "Force you? Grands Dieux! If I could force you, I would have. Long ago."
    She drew a calming breath of air filled with the scent of smoke, fish, and Macassar oil. Strong enough to make her think every male head in the room was heavily slicked.
    "You let Dr. Leland slip through your fingers, Marielle-Claire. Absurd, especially for a man, but I believe he wanted your love. Would not have you unless he had it, which, of course, he did not." Henri's lips parted on a sigh, a puff of smoke drifting forth. "Let there be only honesty between family. Your love is not available, now is it?"
    She blinked and coughed, her eyes stinging. "Available? I've never loved a man enough to get married, if that's what you mean."
    He flicked his hand, ashes from his cigar drifting to the floor. "Why do you insist upon believing in an antiquated ideal? Forget about a marriage based on love. I didn't love your mother. And she did not love me. We had a sensible relationship, a solid partnership. Love would have thrown a kink in a well-oiled piece of machinery," he said, candlelight revealing flaring nostrils and plump cheeks. Except for a hint of plumpness in her own cheeks, she and her father shared little. "If your mother had not been dead all these years, I would curse her for putting such nonsense in your head."
    Elle dug her heels into the pine planks beneath her feet and prayed to God she could hold her tongue. She counted to ten, then whispered, "Grandmere Dupre filled my head with nonsense, if you must know."
    "Ah... cela n'a rien d'etonnant." Henri stabbed his cigar in the clump of creamed spinach on his plate, lips curling back from his teeth. "Not a surprise, to translate for you since your French is much like a child's. This news makes me regret, not for the first time, sending Marie our address after we moved to America. Is this what she wrote about in those cumbersome letters she sent every month? Cautioned you to marry for love? As she did, but, alas, as her beloved daughter did not? Imbecilic drivel from an old woman."
    Elle swallowed her ire, wishing for another glass of wine to soften her father's cruel counsel. "Marie Dupre bore seven children with a man she cherished more than life. She believed in the power of love and urged me to hold on to love if I found it, no matter the cost." Of course, years ago, not long before Marie's death, Elle had made the mistake of writing to her about Noah. Every cumbersome letter from then on had mentioned his name, asking if he had returned to Pilot Isle. As if she somehow knew he would. As if it mattered.
    "Don't look at me with blatant hostility on your face. You are my only child, a beautiful woman, and I love you. However, you tend to dream far too much, Marielle-Claire. Life is for those who grasp it in both hands." He made a fist. "Who do, not who dream. Sad but true, but you need a man to grasp life for you. You cannot do it alone. It's impossible. I made a mistake allowing you unlimited freedom. University, the disruptive group of women who encouraged you to attend those ridiculous rallies. The trouble you got into was easy