Love's Patient Fury (The Deverell Series Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

Varian had taken Merry to his bed. That he hadn’t left Lucien believing in the possibility of annulment. Possibility without tiny complications.
    Lucien wanted an annulment and would make discreet inquiries toward the possibility of being granted one. It was just his anger, the result of his thinking of Merry only as his daughter and a little girl.  She was twenty and a married woman. Lucien’s want of an annulment would pass with understanding of that. Even as stubborn as Lucien was, he would see in time Merry was no longer his little girl. And with Merry, seeing her thus, it was a potentially troublesome complication that there was indeed a possibility of tiny complications . It was too late for an annulment.
    Smoothing wayward ebony curls from Merry’s face, Rhea began in a careful manner wanting to make reason of this, “Merry, I would hope that you feel you can be honest with me in all things, regardless of your father’s difficulty with this. He is a father, his point of view at times different and stronger and less practical. Before we finish unpacking, my dear, if there is a reason you would like not to be in this room, let me know, and I will move you. You are a married woman, Merry. This is the room of a little girl. If you don’t belong here, tell me so I may fix it. I will move you to your husband and stop your father’s want to meddle in this.”
    Merry stared at her mother. Her humiliation was now complete. Her mother wanting to take her to her husband who did not want her. Keeping her eyes shed of tears was torture.
    “No, Mama, it is all as it should be. I don’t wish to be moved. I am married to His Grace, but it is a fiction to spare us all more scandal.  I thought you understood. It is nothing more.”
    Rhea studied her daughter’s drawn face. As it should be, my dear? A fiction? The daughter who had left me would have giggled and blushed at that, as Kate is blushing beside you. You, my daughter, look closer to tears. What is the matter? Why are you and Varian engaging in this deception for us? Why, my dear, are you so unhappy?
    In a voice carefully devoid of reproof, Rhea said, “You were alone with Varian for a year, Merry. He is a handsome man. A charming man. A hot-blooded man...” Kate went from pink to crimson with that. “...and I am not a fool. I have known Varian for twenty years and I see how he looks at you, Merry. You are his wife. It is your proper place to be at your husband’s side. You will find no disapproval of your marriage from me. If he is the man you want, Merry, then I want him for you.”
    Several minutes passed with Merry playing with the folds of her dressing gown as she struggled to speak. At last assured that she could manage it without betraying herself, she said, “I am in my proper place and it is as I wish it to be. I don’t wish to be moved and I don’t wish to discuss my husband further.”
    Merry could no longer meet her mother’s gently searching eyes and instead focused her attention on the simple collection of possession which had somehow been gathered from Varian’s cabin on ship and were among the expensive wardrobe and lavish jewelry. The handkerchief tucked of clay. The picture book of America that had been her birthday gift from Varian and more treasured than the box of gems ever could be. The small bag of shells collected on his Island. The gold and emerald brush and comb set that had been a gift from Jean Lafitte. The volume of Beaumarchais from Ryan Shay. The broom doll from Flava. Her pug sitting curled in a chair beside her bed. A year; they were tokens of only memories now.
    She leaned forward and grabbed her conch shell from Isla del Viento . Merry turned to her cousin. “I brought this from the Caribbean, Kate. A present from me to you. It’s called a conch shell. Isn’t it lovely? Look at all the colors and swirls. This is what a sunset looks like in the Caribbean.” She held it up to Kate’s ear, just as Varian had done to her.