The Letter Read Online Free PDF Page B

promise I will make you sorry for it.”
    Michael bit down on his cheek to keep from smiling and held out his hand. “Then we understand each other.” He clasped his hand around the small, boney one and silently swore that before a month passed, there would be some meat on the boy’s thin frame.
    Now to get this settled with Diana.

Chapter Three
    Diana kept her back turned, staring unseeingly out the window. She didn’t want them—especially Daventry—to see the tears that fell down her cheeks. He had freely admitted he had made a mistake. Leo would have never admitted he was wrong about anything. But Daventry’s words no longer mattered. They came far too late. Then why the tears if it no longer matters? Wiping her face with her sleeve, she composed herself and then turned.
    He was so very clever to treat Jamie as an equal, and now the two had a man-to-man agreement that they would take care of her. Well, she wasn’t having it. “I will say this for the last time, my lord. My son and I are not coming with you.”
    Jamie opened his mouth to speak, but his lordship gave a slight shake of his head. He stood and gave Jamie’s shoulder a light touch before coming to stand in front of her. He was too close, but she forced herself not to retreat. He was tall and muscled, more so than Leo, and if he used his fists on her, she wouldn’t have the strength to stop him. He had told Jamie he would never strike her, but men lied.
    “My lady, you must think of your son.”
    He said it too quietly for Jamie to hear. So this was his strategy. By placing the responsibility for her welfare on Jamie’s shoulders and his on hers, how could either of them refuse him? He had set himself up as their savior and she resented him for it because he was right. It had taken all of her will to keep the two of them alive through the last winter, and she wasn’t sure she could do it again.
    “If you were to fall sick, Diana, how would he manage?”
    She begrudged his calm reason, but a chill invaded her heart at the truth of his words. What would happen to Jamie if she fell ill? Defeated, her shoulders slumped. For her son, she would swallow her pride and conquer her fear. “I will just go down to the stream and collect our clothes.”
    He touched her arm. “James can do that for you.”
    She jerked away from his hand. “No, I will do it while he decides what to take with him.”
    She needed a few minutes alone to regain her composure and steel herself for whatever punishments awaited her. It was possible she wasn’t being fair to Daventry, that he would never beat her. She had once dared to claim such to Leo. Her husband had laughed and said she didn’t know his cousin like he did, that had she married Daventry, she would have learned otherwise. At the time, she hadn’t believed it. Over the years, as the recipient of Leo’s “lessons” she had learned to trust no one.
    ****
    Michael waited until Diana left before turning to James. “Unless it is something that has meaning to you, don’t bother with anything else. We will take care of clothing and such when we arrive at Wyburne.”
    The boy nodded and went to a small chest in the corner. Michael was drained. He had managed to get their agreement without physically throwing them into the carriage. And though she had to know it was her only choice, Diana obviously resented him for it. Would it help or damage what little ground he had gained when she read Leo’s letter? He feared the latter. How would she react upon learning she was innocent of the accusations made against her?
    Finding her in bed with Leo that night had stolen his reason. All he could think at the time was that she had betrayed him. He had ordered everyone out of his house, then left minutes later. If he hadn’t been so wounded and full of pride, he would have seen the truth. The stupidity of youth. How did one atone for being the greatest fool in the kingdom at the age of five and twenty?
    From the moment he