Say You Love Me Read Online Free PDF

strange and beautiful lavender eyes that took his breath away. That was why he had chosen amethysts for the necklace, knowing the splendor of Jacie's eyes would surpass even the beauty of those precious stones.
    Michael never had any doubts that he would make Jacie Calhoun his wife, but his parents were not pleased when they began to notice that he was thinking of her romantically. She was not of his class, they said, and he was expected to marry well, but he was stubborn and swore that when the time came, he would not court anyone else.
    The year he turned sixteen they sent him to England to study at Oxford. He argued that a planter did not need such an education, but they insisted he follow family tradition; all the Blake men studied at Oxford. And so off he went.
    Through his father's acquaintances, Michael was introduced to young ladies from London's finest families. Groomed to marry among their own class, they all had charm and grace, but Michael knew there could be no one for him but Jacie. And not merely because he found her so pretty. He loved her for her zest, her spirit, and when others raised eyebrows over her daring and sometimes unorthodox antics, Michael was merely amused.
    He made friends among his classmates, who took him to the streets of London to learn another side of life—the pleasures of the flesh. But those women were merely a harmless diversion that meant nothing beyond the moment, because he never stopped thinking of Jacie. As a child she had learned to read and write along with him, sharing his tutor at his insistence, against his parents' wishes, so they were able to keep in touch through their letters.
    His time abroad seemed to pass slowly, and Michael began to count months, weeks, finally days, until at last he was on his way home with but one thing on his mind—to make Jacie his wife as soon as possible, his parents' objections be damned.
    But fate had cruelly stepped in to decree otherwise, for Michael arrived home to learn that his father had died suddenly while he was in transit. The responsibility of running the vast plantation had fallen upon his young shoulders, and along with it, the obligation of the ritual of mourning, which could last from six months to two years. His mother declared the longest period. Marriage during that time was out of the question.
    Jacie was around, of course, and Michael treasured what time he could be with her. She loved horses and could usually be found at the stables, but she avoided the blacksmith shop. Michael knew she was not close to her father, who was a cantankerous sort. Actually, no one liked to be around Judd Calhoun, but he did his work well, which was all that mattered to Michael.
    As for Jacie's mother, Violet, Michael yearned for the day he could get Jacie away from her. She was cold and distant to everyone except Judd, doting on him to the point of obsession, though Michael heard she drank too much sometimes and there were terrible fights. But Jacie never divulged family secrets.
    She also never complained that her mother mistreated her, but Michael had his suspicions about that, too, and felt her constant cheerfulness was actually a facade to hide the misery she endured at home.
    It had always seemed to him that Violet only tolerated her daughter, that she felt that Jacie was actually in the way of her adoration for her husband.
    But Michael could not dwell on his love for Jacie or his concern over her unhappy parents, because he was determined to show everyone he was capable of running the plantation at least as well as his father had done. By working tirelessly, he had succeeded in doubling cotton and corn production and at the end of two years was richer than his father had ever been.
    He was proud of his accomplishment but happier still that the time had finally come when he could remove the crepe band from his arm and officially come out of mourning. His mother would probably, as some widows chose to do, wear black for the rest of her