Heaven in His Arms Read Online Free PDF Page B

the crowd, at the closed door to Madame Bourdon's house, then he looked up the black cliff of Quebec toward the palisades of the upper city. Nearly two months he'd prepared for this voyage, and too frequently he'd come up against something: voyageurs unwilling to sign on with him; merchants unwilling to accept his credit; provisions held in warehouses for "inspection," to search for secreted brandy; bureaucrats turning away from the sight of gold gleaming beneath his hand. And all the while time slipped away. Now the first breath of autumn cooled the evenings, and every day another flotilla of canoes headed west as he watched on the shore, grinding his teeth, thrashing inside like a mountain cat trying to find a way out of this trap.
    "You've done the right thing," Philippe murmured, stuffing the paper into his pocket. "Marriage, even a reluctant one, has its benefits, hmm?"
    "Not this marriage."
    "Come, come, old friend." Philippe tapped his wrought-wooden cane into the mud, clinking on a block of stone beneath. "A warm bed, a willing woman.. . . Such things I've never known you to turn away.''
    "This will be a marriage of convenience." Andre slapped his hat over his dark wig, snapping one of the delicate ostrich plumes in the process. "When I come back in the spring, I'm getting an annulment."
    "Andre . . ."
    "I'm in no mood to hear you rhapsodize about the wonders of the conjugal bed.'' Andre rubbed his elbow, against his side, trying to scratch an itch where a seam was rubbing his skin. "I'm marrying because I was given no choice: marry or give up the trip. So here I am. But there's no requirement that I stay married."
    Philippe's smile faltered. He twisted away and gazed over the black waters of the St. Lawrence, watching a small boat navigate the currents to the opposite shore. A team of oxen lumbered by, strapped to a cart laden with ribbed green watermelons, fresh from the farm. One fell off and splattered into the mud, spewing its sweet rosy fruit over the ground.
    "I suppose," Philippe began on a sigh, "that you won't consider a relationship with this woman."
    "No consummation, no marriage."
    "I suppose not." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a circular gold case, which he snapped open with a click. The river breeze careened a whirlwind of dust off the contents. "To think, after I received your message last night, that I entertained the notion you might actually be coming around.. . . My own folly. Old ghosts are rarely buried so abruptly, eh, mon vieux ami ?"
    Philippe pinched out a puff of powder and pressed it against a nostril, snorting it deeply.
    As expressionless as an Iroquois chief, the bastard, Andre thought, and all while he speared an old wound with a red-hot poker.
    "So what are you to do with her?" Philippe sniffed delicately, brushing his nose with the back of his hand. "I know you won't winter in Quebec with her, and I know you won't leave her here alone."
    A murmuring began among the crowd of men as the door to Madame Bourdon's house cracked open. Andre turned away and shouldered into the crowd, blocking out the flare of memory Philippe was doing his damnedest to ignite.
    But the crowd jostled and did not move, and soon they were all herded into a ragged line. The orange scent of Philippe's strong perfume wafted over his shoulder.
    "In rather a hurry, Andre, for a man so sullen about marriage."
    "The sooner this is done, the sooner you'll get me my trading license." His nostrils flared as he glanced easily over the heads of the other men, toward the fiver. "The sooner I can be out there."
    "Marietta will be doubly disappointed." Philippe used his cane as a barrier, eyeing anyone who dared consider crossing it and cutting in on them in line. "She was looking forward to a female companion over the long winter months."
    "She'll get her heart's desire. Did you think I summoned you here just to be a witness?"
    Philippe's blue eyes narrowed, and not against the glare.
    "I'm giving you a governess