The Chocolatier's Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

hands clenched nervously, and her chest seemed to ache from want of air.
    As he turned, she realized her cloak hood was still up, and she reached up and quickly pushed it back, smiling at him.
    It took him visibly aback. He came over to the cell bars and peered at her, then laughed, a huff of disbelief that did not sound altogether unpleased. “I never dreamed you would come.”
    “Well. It seemed like the right thing to do. After all, we are to be married.” She gave him a pleased smile. “How did you know it was me?”
    “There was no one else it could be, especially with that remark.” He returned her smile, and then shook his head. “You are no longer bound to wed me. Even when I am proved innocent ... and I will be, I swear ... it would do your reputation no good.”
    “Oh, yes.” She said, and took a step forward. “And I am already so popular with the townsfolk, being a Tarnia hag and all that. Why, widowers are lining up outside the barracks, hoping to coax me away from you.”
    He laughed again, and she decided she rather liked his smile. It took him from b e ing a bit plain to being rather handsome. She had no illusions about her own looks, so hoped, despite her resolve not to care, that she did not disappoint his eye, either.
    She put her hand through the bars, and he took it, pressing a hard kiss on the back, and an equally fierce one in the palm, and her toes curled, and she knew, like she knew right from left, that she had made the right choice.
    “It is good to see you, William,” she said with feeling.
    “And you. At long last, I get to see the woman the babe has become. I can hardly credit my good fortune.”
    “And I can hardly credit the accusations levied against you. What insanity is this? You of all people!” Shaking her head, she saw a barrel nearby. She went and dragged it over, and sat, arranging her skirts around her.
    He ran his hands though his short, slightly curly hair. “To be plain, I am accused of murdering a man whom I have no reason to harm. The evidence is a box of chocolates that I most heartily deny making.”
    “That is all? You cannot be serious! No witnesses? No records of some sort of di s pute between you and the Bishop? That is what they use to keep you imprisoned?”
    “Indeed. My lawyer is trying to find out the reason behind this, but thus far has had no fortune in getting me freed.”
    “You will forgive me if I say you are in desperate need of a new lawyer?”
    He shrugged, as if he thought she had a point, and then said, “He is my father’s lawyer. Seeing me freed is in his best interests. He’s also very good so, I am assured, if there is a way out then he will find it.”
    She sighed, and they were silent for a moment. Perhaps he is thinking, as I, that this is hardly what we expected our first conversation to be about. With that in mind, she attempted to steer towards the future, at least as much as she could.
    “So, where do you keep your spare key?” she asked him.
    “Spare key?”
    “For your shop. As it has been closed for three weeks now, I feel that one of my first tasks it to get it open again.”
    He shook his head. “Tasmin, that is very kind of you, but ‘tis of no use. No one will come. They will be too afraid of being poisoned, especially since you are a mage from the North. They will be afraid of you.” He sat on a chair inside the cell and rested his wrists on the cross bars of the gate.
    “ B lu n t a s a lw a ys , I see . W ell , I sh a l l b e blu n t a s well . ” Sh e cu r le d he r h an d ar ou n d his , an d h e see m e d t o t ak e co m fo r t f r o m it . “Mos t peopl e a do r e tw o thi n g s beyo n d r e a so n . Sc an d a l an d chocol a te . An d I i n te n d t o c a pit a li z e o n both . T he y wil l n o t b e a bl e t o hel p the m sel v es . I n f a ct , I ma y n ee d help . D o yo u sugges t anyone? ”
    He was silent for a long moment, then, “My own family won’t be able to help. A n drew is too busy