What the Fates Decree: The Caversham Chronicles-The Titans of the Revolution by Sandy Raven Read Free Book Online Page A

come with me to Rathcavan after I tell you the rest of the news.”
    “What news is that?” Penelope said as she returned to scanning the pages of the book she held, seemingly uninterested in anything her mother had to say now that she had her apology out of the way.
    “The man that Olivia is marrying is someone known to you.” Her daughter lifted her eyes to her, and Beverly studied Penelope’s expression, and found no worry on her brow yet, but she knew for certain that it would change. “She is marrying a friend of her half-brother’s.” Penelope tilt her head with curiosity. It was a habit she’d learned from her father.
    “She’s newly betrothed to a Mr. Nathaniel Santiago.”
    Charlotte and Isabel sucked in a breath, recognizing the name immediately. For her daughter, though, the response she sought was there, even if only for a fraction of a second. And just as she caught that flash of recognition in her daughter’s eyes, it was gone. Hidden behind that wall of emotion she only shared with Isabel and Charlotte.
    “That’s nice for the two of them,” Penelope said in that same disinterested voice, now tinged with bitterness. She resumed flipping through the pages of the book with an intensity that bordered on viciousness, searching for something of importance to show Charlotte.
    She did her best to maintain her calm, knowing her daughter’s heart was likely breaking anew. “Do you still wish to attend the party?” Beverly asked. “It will mean one month in Scotland, in the presence of—”
    Penelope stood and handed the book to her friend. “—In the presence of a man who obviously wasn’t worth the time I spent upset about his disappearance. He was such a coward that he didn’t have the courage to tell me he was leaving. He didn’t even send me a note.” After glancing down at Charlotte and Isabel, Penelope took a deep breath and said to Beverly, “I would love to go, Mama. I want to go for the hunt, to visit with my father’s favorite aunt. And I want to go especially to show the fickle Mr. Santiago that he didn’t break my heart. In fact, he hardened it to others like him.”
    Her daughter gave her a forced smile, and Beverly recognized the false bravery behind the glow in her daughter’s eyes. She knew this because Penelope’s beautiful brown eyes were on the verge of filling with tears.
    “You’ll see,” Penelope stated. “I am a much stronger woman than I was before I met him.”
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    THE END

Please enjoy a preview of the next book in the Caversham Chronicles, and the first book in The Titans of the Revolution, FATED LOVE, Coming later this year!

CHAPTER ONE
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    O ctober , 1842, Scottish Lowlands
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    M iss Penelope Fenwick , daughter and only child of the Viscount and Viscountess Huddleston, fought the rising panic inside as she held the door to her room open for her friend to enter.
    “Well… If that wasn’t the most awkward welcome we’ve ever received, I don’t know what is,” Lady Charlotte Brightman, only daughter of the Earl of Camden whispered as she swept into Penelope’s rooms. “Emphasis on awkward.”
    Penelope nodded in agreement. Placing a finger over her closed lips, she shut the door to her suite after allowing entrance to one of her two best friends in the entire world. She then pressed her hand to her belly, hoping to stop the butterflies from bursting forth. Penny never showed nerves on the outside, she kept them bottled within, releasing her anxieties in the privacy of her own bedchamber. It was something she’d had to learn early in her life. If her mother saw her upset, she would then become worried for her. And her mother had enough of her own worries with Penny’s father off somewhere in the northern territories of India. Penny didn’t want to add to her mother’s concerns.
    Even before Penelope could reply, a second knock, just moments from the first, brought their friend Isabel into the room.
    “I rushed right over after tossing my hat