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

“If you listen you can hear the sea.” Kate frowned and then her eyes widened before she laughed. “You would not believe how beautiful the world is or how spectacular the sea can be. I have seen so much. I wish you had been sharing it with me. If nothing else, my adventure with His Grace was worth seeing America.”
    ~~~
    “I would like to kill that man.”
    Rhea sat curled in a chair before the fire, calmly stitching on a sampler. She finished the neat move with the needle and then looked up to meet the angry countenance of her husband. “That man, Lucien, is his grace, the seventh Duke of Windmere,” she stated calmly. “Need I remind you he is of royal blood? You cannot kill him.”
    Lucien was astounded by Rhea’s calmness over this wretched state of affairs. “You need remind me of nothing, Rhea.  Any other man, my dear, and he would be dead.”
    “Behave, Lucien,” Rhea chided. “Our daughter is alive and back with us. It is a happy day.”
    “Alive and back with us and married to Varian Deverell,” Lucien reminded her through gritted teeth. “It is far from a wholly joyous circumstance.”
    Rhea made another graceful move with her needle again. “You have always been too harsh in your opinion of His Grace. You would do well to practice at containing it. Merry will not appreciate you being at daggers drawn with her husband.”
    Lucien’s dark brows lowered in a fierce scowl. “Merry would appreciate more a fast annulment to this misbegotten union than the containment of my temper. Or has it escaped your notice that our daughter is miserable. She said nothing in the drawing room, nothing at supper, almost as if she is afraid to speak without Varian’s permission. Do not dispute he has done something to her. You were with her a long time, Rhea. Did our daughter say anything to you about this ghastly state of affairs?”
    Rhea shook her head and continued to sew. “Merry is not afraid of Varian,” she stated calmly. “If she appeared unhappy, it’s little wonder. You and Andrew did a dreadful show of hiding your opinion of Varian and your reaction to their announcement. She is a new bride and you put her husband half a house away from her. It would make matters pass more smoothly for us all if you’d simply put him in the adjoining suite beside Merry and let them manage the state of their marriage without your interference. Even Varian Deverell could not make Merry do what Merry does not wish to.”
    “For all we know he dragged her to speak the vows against her will at gunpoint, bound, and gagged. I put no manner of outrage beyond his character.”
    Rhea laughed softly. “I doubt that, my love. As for his character, he brought Merry to us the instant he discovered who she was. I believe both Varian and Camden to be in complete honesty in that. He faced you directly knowing he would be at war with you. A war for reasons personally hurtful and tragic to him, certainly an unwanted pain after a decade, he stepped into out of his devotion to our daughter. If you think you are going to run His Grace off and annul this union, you should save your efforts. He is being considerate of your emotions as Merry’s father, Lucien, but his tolerance will go only so far. It will not extend to you ending their marriage. That he faced you directly in ghastly circumstance means he is entirely committed to preserving their marriage, and entirely committed to mending bridges. That is what happened here today, my love, if you are unaware.”
    “He has no choice if I decide we will all be better served by an annulment. Merry is under age. Even married by special license I can undo it if I wish to.”
    Carefully, Rhea said, “His Grace is allowing you to maintain the belief that it is you and your will that will prevail in this. Have you considered it may be impractical for an annulment? My instincts tell me that they share a complete affection between them.”
    “What has Merry told you that you are not sharing