The Widow and the Wastrel Read Online Free PDF Page B

do all day?"
    "If it's any of your business," her chin quivered in anger, "I was kept quite busy with the redecorating."
    "Under Mother's supervision, right?" he mocked.
    Her eyes brightened with volatile temper to a more vibrant shade of green, contrasting sharply with the rich blue of her caftan.
    "I was seventeen at the time and too inexperienced to handle such a formidable job on my own. I was very glad of your mother's assistance!"
    "So the house was never completed?"
    "Yes." She turned away to the sink as she made the clipped response. "We were to move into it, but Jeremy was killed in that car crash and I simply…c-couldn't bring myself to live in the house that we were to share together."
    "So you stayed on here," he said in a faintly accusing note.
    "After I discovered I was pregnant with Amy, there was nowhere else for me to go. My aunt was in the hospital with a severe diabetes attack."
    "And Mother offered her assistance again, is that it?" Jed mocked harshly. "When Amy was born, you were still young and inexperienced and knew nothing about babies, so you accepted her guidance again. You could have found a better teacher. In fact, you could have fumbled through on your own with the same results. A lot of women do, and without the benefit of the financial peace of mind you so luckily had."
    "You're so strong and so arrogantly confident that you know exactly what's right," Elizabeth retaliated, "that you probably don't know what it's like to feel lost and alone and frightened. I doubt if you know what it's like to need the support of someone else. I doubt if you know what it's like to need anyone!"
    "Believe me, I need!" His voice vibrated huskily. "If I didn't, I wouldn't have come home. Although it's some homecoming!"
    "Don't blame me for that. You were the one who left! And three letters in nine years hardly sounds as if you were very homesick!"
    "Do you want to know how many letters I received from my parents?" Jed flashed. "Exactly two! One telling me of Jeremy's death and the other of my father's. My effort to keep the lines of communication open was not encouraged. I felt as if I was batting my head against a brick wall ten feet thick!"
    "Then why did you come back?" she lashed out, angry that he was taking his frustration out on her.
    "I've been asking myself that question ever since I arrived. I should have realized the age of miracles is over. I had thought," the smile curving his mouth was turned inward in self-mockery, "if I came back willing to make peace, my mother would meet me halfway, accept the way I am. The only thing she can allow herself to acknowledge is success."
    "That's a cruel accusation!" Elizabeth breathed in sharply.
    His gaze glittered to her face, hard and unyielding like a topaz sapphire. "I love my mother deeply, but that doesn't make me blind to her faults."
    "What's wrong with being ambitious? Or wanting to better yourself?" she demanded.
    "You've climbed to the top of this small social ladder. What do you think of the view? Is it what you expected it to be?" Jed countered. "As fulfilling and rewarding as you thought?"
    "Not fulfilling exactly, but that was a qualification Elizabeth made silently. "All the activities keep me busy," she defended. "And I enjoy the charity work. It's very rewarding helping deserving people."
    "Deserving by whose standards? My mother's?" He punctuated the words with a short, derisive laugh.
    "I think you've become harder and more cynical than she is," Elizabeth observed.
    "What about you? Are you becoming like her? Don't you think you'll ever desire the warmth and companionship of a man's love?"
    "I haven't thought about it." She was suddenly wary, not liking the subject change from his mother to her.
    "Don't you think you would miss not having a man's arms around you again?" Jed continued his pursuit of the subject.
    Her chin was raised upward to a defiant angle. "I doubt it," she replied. "I was raised by a maiden aunt. Jeremy was killed so soon