Impulse Read Online Free PDF Page B

way, Angela. I talked to Pettigrew until I was ready to drop. I pleaded and argued and pointed out the unfairness of it. He apologized and flushed and looked perfectly miserable, but he would not budge. He is not the one who makes the decisions. He is merely representing someone else.”
    â€œWhy should you have to beg and plead and argue?” Angela turned to face him, her eyes bright with anger and a touch of fear. “Just because he owns some land that was once ours does not mean he can bend us to his will. They’re closing the mine, anyway— Oh, wait. Of course. I see. That’s why he talked about shutting down the mine. He will close it only if I don’t marry him. Is that it?”
    Jeremy nodded, unable to meet Angela’s eyes. “And if you marry him, he will make the improvements so that the mine will earn more money.”
    â€œAh, I see,” Angela’s voice was bitter. “Both the carrot and the stick. So if I don’t agree to marry this— this bully, the family will not only lose the money we are getting now, we will lose the added amount we wouldhave gotten. Well, he has certainly contrived to put me into a thoroughly untenable position.”
    Jeremy groaned, turning away and plunging his hands into his hair. “That isn’t even the worst of it. He bought up my notes, as well.”
    â€œWhat notes?”
    â€œPractically every one I have ever signed. Personal notes, all the encumbrances on the property—almost every cent I have borrowed in the past ten years. I owe it all to him now! If he chose to call it due, I would be ruined. I could not begin to pay it. He could take half our land. Oh, God, Angela, I don’t know what I am to do!”
    â€œJeremy!” Angela gazed at him, shaken. “What kind of man would do that? Arbitrarily choose a family, people he has never met, in an entirely different country, even, and inflict such damage on them? Bend them to his will by any means, fair or foul?”
    â€œYou, of all people, must know that there are such men,” Jeremy blurted out.
    â€œSweet heaven, you are right.” Angela passed a suddenly trembling hand over her face. “Doubtless Dunstan would have done the same if he had lacked position in Society.”
    â€œNo. I should not have said that.” Jeremy swung around to face her. “This man is not necessarily like Dunstan.”
    â€œSomeone who wields a club like that over your head? Someone that ruthless? That unfeeling? What else would he be like?”
    â€œIt does not mean that he would be the—the same sort of husband. That he would…would…”
    â€œBeat me?” Angela supplied, when Jeremy could not get the words out. “Make my life unbearable? Ofcourse he would. Do you think such a man would brook disagreement in a wife? Or refrain from taking it out on me when he is in a bad temper? Jeremy…” Angela felt panic rising up inside her. “You said when I ran to you that I would never have to marry again. You promised me!”
    â€œOh, God! Don’t, Angela. I won’t make you. I could not force you, anyway.”
    â€œI am dependent upon you.”
    â€œYou think that I would turn you out if you refused to marry him? Is that the sort of man you think I am?”
    â€œNo.” Angela sighed. “I think you are a very good man. A kind one.”
    It was that very fact that made her hate to refuse him. Jeremy had been kind and loyal to her. When she ran away from Dunstan, he had taken her in and given her his support and protection. She was certain that Dunstan had brought pressure to bear on Jeremy, but he had not crumpled. He had not given her up. He had stood by her through the horrid mess of the divorce, through the rumors and snide gossip, through the awful, damning testimony. He had passed through a crucible, too, during that time, suffering the snubs of some of his peers and the whispers of most of