Shattered Rainbows Read Online Free PDF Page A

alone?"
    "Of course I am," she said mildly. "I enjoy walking."
    He supposed that to a woman who had followed the drum, Brussels seemed very tame, but no woman so lovely should walk alone in a town full of soldiers. "Then let me escort you."
    His groom and orderly were waiting nearby on horseback with his baggage, so he stopped to instruct them to follow. As he and Mrs. Melbourne set off along the Rue Royale, she tucked her hand in his arm. There was nothing flirtatious in the gesture. Rather, she had the easy manner of a comfortably married woman who was accustomed to being surrounded by men.
    Deciding it was time to stop acting like a stunned ox, he remarked, "It's very good of you to let me share your billet. I suspect that good quarters are hard to find."
    "Kenneth Wilding will be glad to have another infantryman under the same roof."
    He grinned. "Surely you know that one infantryman is easily a match for two cavalry officers, Mrs. Melbourne."
    "Just because the British cavalry is famous for chasing the enemy as wildly as they run after foxes, there's no reason to be caustic," she said with a laugh. "And please, call me Catherine. After all, we shall be living together like brother and sister for the indefinite future."
    Brother and sister. She was so unaware of the paralyzing impact she had made on him that he began to relax. He had shared billets with married couples before, and he could do so now. "Then you must call me Michael. Have you been in Brussels long?"
    "Only a fortnight or so. However, Anne Mowbry and I have shared quarters before, and we have the housekeeping down to a science." She gave him a humorous glance. "We run a very good boardinghouse, if I do say so. There's always food available for a man who has worked odd hours. Dinner is served for anyone who is home, and there's usually enough for an unexpected guest or two. In return, Anne and I request that any drunken revels be held elsewhere. The children need their sleep."
    "Yes, ma'am. Are there any other house rules I should know?"
    She hesitated, then said uncomfortably, "It will be appreciated if you pay your share of the expenses promptly."
    In other words, money was sometimes tight. "Done. Let me know how much and when."
    She nodded, then glanced at his green Rifleman's uniform. "Are you just back from North America?"
    "No, I sold out last year after Napoleon abdicated and have been living a quiet civilian life. However, when I heard that the emperor had bolted again…" He shrugged.
    "A civilian life," she said wistfully. "I wonder what it would be like to know one could stay in one house forever."
    "You've never had that?"
    She shook her head "My father was in the army, so it's the only life I've ever known."
    No wonder she had learned to create comfort wherever she went. Her husband was a lucky man.
    They fell into an easy conversation, for the Peninsular years had given them experiences in common. It was all quite casual—except for the fact that he was acutely conscious of the light pressure of her gloved fingers on his arm.
    Deciding that he should mention their first encounter, he said, "We did meet three years ago after a fashion, Catherine."
    She frowned, an enchanting furrow appearing between her brows. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't remember."
    "I was wounded at Salamanca. At the field hospital, you gave me water when I was desperately thirsty. I've never been so grateful for anything in my life."
    She turned and studied his face, as if trying to recall.
    "There was no reason for you to remember me among so many. But you might recollect the boy on the pallet next to me. He was calling for his mother, and thought you were she. You stayed with him until he died."
    "Ahh…" She exhaled, her lighthearted charm dropping away to reveal the tenderness of the woman who had comforted Jem. "Poor boy. There was so little I could do. So
damnably
little." She turned her face away. "I suppose I should have become accustomed to such scenes, but I never