Pirate of My Heart: A Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

position and pressed the cup into her hands. She lifted it to her lips, not caring what it was. After a few moments a lethargic weakness came over her. Her arms grew tired and leaden, her legs too shaky to stand upon. Doctor Radley took her arm and helped her up to her bedchamber. He tucked the blanket under her chin and promised, “I will come back and check on you soon. Try and get some rest.”
    Kendra closed her eyes as silent tears rushed, one after the other, down her temples and into her hair. After a while, the numbness settled over her entire body and she was left with a barren emptiness that reached to her soul. The grief pitted in her stomach like iron to a lodestone but a languid tiredness overcame her body as the doctor’s sleeping draught took full effect. She allowed her heavy, swollen eyelids to drop and she slept.

    The days following the funeral blurred together in a numb stupor. The whole village had turned out at St. Nicholas Parish Church to say farewell to their kind master. Kendra wandered about the estate in a lost way, with the vacant hole in her heart deadening the blue of her eyes. Her uncle Andrew took up his place as the new Earl of Arundel, but she rarely saw him, even at dinner time. He was locked away in her father’s library. Doing what, she did not know.
    Months after that horrible day, Andrew called Kendra into the library and bade her to sit down. Her uncle took the seat behind her father’s massive desk. She could hardly look at him there, where her father should be. When she did look up, Andrew’s gaze was impassive while her father’s had been kind and so full of love for her.
    “You must have something terrible to tell me since I’ve barely had the comfort of your presence,” she said in a dead voice. She was so tired, nothing seemed to matter anymore.
    “Not terrible, my dear, and I’m sorry I’ve been so absent. I miss him too, you know.”
    “You do?” It didn’t seem so.
    “Of course I do. Now, I have had to decide upon your future and we need to discuss a few things.” Andrew cleared his throat and took on a lecturing mien. “After giving the matter a great deal of thought, I’ve concluded that it is time you marry. This has been too hard on you, hard on us all as you know, and I believe the best way to put your father’s death behind you and move forward with your life would be to have a family of your own.” He stared down at her. “No, don’t give me that look. A husband with some little ones along the way is the obvious answer.” He paused here and looked down at the papers on his desk, shuffling them around a bit. “As you know we cannot afford a London season and all the fripperies that it would entail, so we must proceed in a quieter manner. I assure you, my dear, I will do my best to find someone suitable to your station.”
    “And what does ‘proceeding in a quieter manner’ consist of?” Kendra asked. She could hardly endure the thought of men calling on her.
    “I have put forth word, in an offhanded way of course, that I am seeking a suitor for my niece. I’m rather hoping that some of your past suitors come up to scratch.”
    “My past suitors?” Kendra exclaimed. “What suitors?”
    “Your father must have failed to tell you of the offers he had for your hand. In his foolish attempt to keep you with him as long as possible, he turned them all down. Now, considering our present, er, situation, a suitor will be more difficult to find.”
    Kendra paled. Her father had wanted her to marry. Maybe what Uncle Andrew said made a certain amount of sense. She had little desire to stay in the empty loneliness of the castle with an uncle that didn’t seem to care for her company. Maybe a family of her own was the best solution. “How soon should you know something?”
    Andrew smiled brightly, a little too bright for Kendra’s peace of mind. “You should be pleased to know that I have been fortunate enough to already have an interested