The Seduction of His Wife Read Online Free PDF Page A

marriage bed, and outside of it for that matter.” Abby gave them both a piercing glare that dared them to ask more. “Don’t you see what Waverly wants?”
    Yes, she’d suspected Waverly’s intentions in luring her to a house that catered to women with loose morals.
    “Abigail Anne Hallaway, you will not say such things!” Grace admonished. “Some devil has taken hold of your tongue.” Did Grace wish to shield Emma from this truth? It was pointless to do such a thing.
    “I think the devil more or less ran away with it long ago.” Abby grinned at them both, closed her book, set it on the table, and picked up a vine full of grapes.
    Emma cut off a retort from Grace. “Leave Waverly to me.”
    Grace ripped off a chunk of bread from the center of the table and sat heavily in her chair, glaring at Abby.
    “Why do you suppose he never showed?” Abby remarked, finger tapping her lip in thought as she focused on Emma again.
    “I don’t know. Maybe he saw Richard and decided to leave? Maybe he changed his mind? Maybe he’s already revealed the truth.”
    “He hasn’t. We would have heard something by now.” Grace patted her hand in a comforting gesture. “We’ll have to wait and see what happens when we return to Mansfield Hall.”
    All three sisters nodded their agreement.
    “Come on,” Emma suggested. “Let’s go for a walk and leave this mess behind us at least for the remainder of the day.”
    Grace nodded. Abby tied her straw bonnet under her chin before they were arm in arm venturing back through the house and toward the park.
    “I still want to know what you’ll do if your husband does come home?” Grace asked with a wistful sigh. Always the romantic.
    “Do you really think he will?” Silly of her to ask, but the old hope of having him near, of having him come to see her as he used to when they courted so long ago, was taking root in her heart. “He never wanted a wife.”
    How it pained her to know that for the truth. Given half a chance, she knew she could have been a good wife to him. It seemed too late for such youthful fantasies.
    “When men grow older, and you know I speak from experience,” Grace said, “they want to settle down into a quieter life with their wives at their side.”
    “I daresay,” Abby put in, laughing, “Asbury isn’t so old as your husband was, Grace.”
    Grace and Emma both giggled with the assessment. Richard had turned thirty-one two months past. Grace’s husband must have been in his sixth, almost seventh, decade when he’d passed away.
    “True,” Grace said. “But he probably wants children before he’s too old. My husband already had children to take over his title and lands.”
    Did Emma want to be a mother? It seemed unlikely at this stage in her marriage. Especially after all the years she’d craved her husband’s attention and received none. But the fact of the matter was, she was aging, and she wanted children very much.
    When she was growing up, she’d always thought she’d have her own brood by the ripe age of twenty-seven.
    She’d waited on her husband too long, wasted too many years pining after something that wasn’t meant to be. For the time being, she had her paintings to keep her time occupied. Not that she could share it with the world since they were mostly of an erotic nature. But it was something to keep her mind engaged.
    They walked down the winding path of the Serpentine and sat on a bench to watch the ducks swim by.
    Finally, Emma said, “Children would be a welcome distraction, and wouldn’t be able to leave me so readily as my husband did.”
    Abby gave her a pensive look. “You were both so young that it’s not fair to fault either of you in a failed marriage. We are surrounded by failed marriages. Most of our acquaintances will never have the security of wedded bliss.” She scrunched up her nose. “Asbury should have known better than to keep running away from his life here. It’s done neither of you any good. A