The Border Lord and the Lady Read Online Free PDF Page A

nodded graciously to him. “Thank you, my lord, but I acted not to betray my lady, but rather to prevent her from blackening her immortal soul.”
    “Of course,” he agreed, nodding in return as she slipped from the library. Then he sank back into his chair to consider what he must do. He should have never married Luciana. But then whom would he have married? When Anne had died giving birth to Cicely he had known he could never really love again. Not like he had loved Anne. They had grown up together. She was his household steward’s daughter. They shared family, for his steward had been a distant relation from an even poorer branch of the Bowen family. Then suddenly Anne was gone, but he had Cicely—and an estate with a great house in need of repairs. No coin for it, nor to even pay his servants, who remained with him out of duty, loyalty, the need for a home themselves. There had been no choice but to finally take a wife.
    He might have married the younger daughter from another good English family, with a pittance for a dower. He did, after all, have an old and honorable name as well as a title to offer a wife. Or he could have, as he had done, sought out the offspring of a wealthy merchant willing to pay for that title for his child. Luciana’s dower was excessively
generous, and Master Pietro d’Angelo eager to see his daughter a countess. The earl had quietly investigated the family and learned of the gossip about his prospective wife, but as there was nothing proven and in the end she proved a virgin, he had been content—especially as she had given him three healthy sons in as many years, and her investment advice was excellent. He was fast becoming a very wealthy man.
    But Luciana’s unreasonable jealousy towards his little daughter was becoming difficult to manage. He could not allow her to harm Cicely, but neither could he expose his wife, the mother of his three sons, to a charge of witchcraft and murder. Robert Bowen drew a deep sigh. Donna Clara was right. Reluctant as he was to do it, he knew he would have to foster out his daughter with another family. But with whose family? And what could he offer such a family in return? He needed to think upon it.
    Leaving his library, the earl went to his apartments, entering his wife’s bedchamber. Luciana was awaiting him. Her face was tearstained, and when she saw him she began to sob. It was a familiar scene, and he almost laughed aloud. “What is troubling you, my darling?” he asked her as he came to sit upon the edge of her bed, taking her hand up and kissing it.
    “I am so frightened, Roberto,” she said. “Henry might have been killed today. Your ba . . . daughter wishes them all ill. What will become of our sons?” She sobbed.
    “They will, with God’s blessing, grow up to be fine men,” the earl replied. “As for Cicely, it is time I fostered her out with another noble family so she may take her place in the world. One day, sooner than later, I will have to find a husband for her.”
    Luciana’s brown eyes grew wide. “You are sending the girl away, my lord?” The tears, the looks of fear she had been casting at him had suddenly vanished.
    “As soon as I find a suitable family with whom to place her,” Robert Bowen said. “It should not take a great deal of time, and until then
she is forbidden the gardens, my darling.” He stroked her long dark hair, which was loose in her dishabille.
    “What of her servant who attacked me?” Luciana’s voice was now hard.
    “Orva will go with Cicely,” the earl replied.
    “She should be punished for laying her hands on me!” his wife said angrily. “There is a bruise on my shoulder where the creature’s thumb dug into me.”
    “You beat my daughter with no real provocation, Luciana.” Now the earl’s voice was cold and hard. “Orva tells me Cicely is black and blue all over.”
    “She tried to harm my child!” the Countess of Leighton protested.
    “ She is seven years old, Luciana, and