Shameless Read Online Free PDF Page B

like that?”
    “Lower your voice,” he hissed. “Do you want the whole house to hear?”
    “I hate it here. I want to go home!”
    “You know why you can’t do that.”
    “It’s not as though I’ve committed some heinous crime. I’m just pregnant.”
    “With a married man’s child!”
    Pippa had been struck dumb by the ferocity of her father’s voice. And the blame she heard in it. “I loved him,” she’d replied softly. “When I ran away with him, I didn’t know he was married. He lied to me.”
    He’d tipped her chin up with a forefinger until he could look into her eyes and said in a heartbreakingly sad voice, “The gossip would never have died. You’d have been an outcast the rest of your life.”
    She couldn’t remember exactly what else he’d said, but his point was clear. There was no going back.
    “You can start over here,” he said.
    “And do what?”
    “Whatever you want. You can give up the baby for adoption and—”
    Pippa had jerked her chin free, her heart clutching at the thought of giving up her child. “Stop right there. Is that what you thought? That I’d give up my baby so no one would ever know what a shameless bitch I am? Think again! I’m having this baby. And I’m keeping it!”
    She never heard the rest of what he’d said. She was already running. She’d grabbed her coat and left the house, muttering angrily to herself that she would love her child no matter who its father was. But all the while, she felt chilled to the marrow of her bones at the thought that it simply might not be possible to separate her loathing for Tim from the child he’d sired.
    She’d saddled a horse and galloped away, wishing there were some way she could keep on riding and never come back.
    But she had nowhere to go.
    Except the refuge she’d found where the ever-constant wind rustled in the evergreens and the elegant white swans came during the day to glide silently by. She wondered where the stranger was and what he was doing. And why he’d never come back to see her.
    The pond seemed different at night. Eerie and fantastical, as though there were ghosts in the shadows. She stepped off her horse and tied the reins to a nearby pine, then headed for the perch where she’d first sat down with the stranger. She shivered as her jean-clad bottom hit the cold stone and wrapped her arms around herself to stay warm in her fleece jacket.
    She put a hand to her belly and murmured to her unborn child, “I will find a way to put the past behind me. And I will love you with all my heart and soul and mind.”
    But she wasn’t going to be able to live at Kingdom Come any more than she’d been able to stay in Underhill. Here everyone would know she was an unwed mother. She needed to go somewhere else. But where? And how?
    Tears stung her nose and one fell onto her cheek. She angrily brushed it away. Tears solved nothing. She had to start planning a life for herself and her unborn child. But the enormity of the task ahead caused more tears to well in her eyes. Pippa covered her face and sobbed for her lost dreams of a husband who would love her and a child who would laugh and play in their happy home.
    She heard a low growl and froze. She’d been warned that gray wolves stalked these mountains, along with cougars and bears. She’d felt safe riding through the forest during the day because she always made plenty of noise, knowing the wild animals would do their best to stay out of her way. She’d hardly given the danger a thought when she’d left the house tonight. She regretted that now.
    She had no weapon with her. She was totally defenseless. She rose slowly, backing toward her horse.
    She heard the growl again, louder, more threatening, and stopped where she was.
    Behind her a familiar voice said, “Hello again.”
    “Be careful!” she said. “There’s something—”
    The growl came again, right beside her. Pippa saw the wolf’s eyes and its sharp teeth reflected in the moonlight and