The Winter Love Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t know what he would do with a nun. And she was naive in the ways that only a nun could be who had lived away from the world for a long time. She seemed to have no idea how to behave outside the convent walls and was a danger to them both. Philip had told him that she had gone into the convent as a child, but he had not said how old she was now. Henry estimated that she was sixteen or seventeen and must have been in the convent for eight or nine years. She could have little knowledge of the world beyond the convent walls.
    Despite her fear and distress, for which he felt very guilty, there was a stillness and distance about her that he admired. She was not a flighty girl who flirted with him and there had certainly been enough of those since he had become rich for him to recognise the type. No, she was someone who belonged in a convent. She was made for prayer and meditation, not for roaming the countryside with a soldier newly returned from France.
    Eleanor sighed in her sleep and he eased the blanket up to her neck. Then he got out and closed the curtain on her side, leaving the one next to him open. He wondered, as he had wondered since Philip’s death, how he could tell Eleanor why the men were there and what they wanted. He was sure it would be better to wait until they were somewhere safe. Perhaps he should take her to his parents. They would look after her and she could stay there until it was safe for her to return. He turned in the bed restlessly and then held his breath until he knew that he had not disturbed Eleanor.
    Eleanor looked so much like her brother that it had been hard not to call her by his name. Philip had been a short man and Eleanor’s hair and eyes were the same colour as his and her hair was just as unruly as his. Perhaps it would be easier for him if she had looked more like a woman when she had changed into his clothes. Her short, blonde hair made her look just like a boy, despite her shape. Henry’s clothes hung on her the way that they would on a boy and tied her belt loosely, so her waist was not obvious. His clothes were too large for her, so her breasts were hidden. Now that they were in bed, in the dark, he was very aware that she was a woman, full-grown and alone. He tried to work out whether she was pretty. He thought she might be if her hair grew. He had not known that nuns kept their hair short, although he was grateful that this was the case. A boy with hair to his waist would have attracted attention. He wondered if life in the convent pleased her or whether she wanted to be a wife and a mother. This was none of his affair; his only task was to keep her safe and take her back to her convent. There was no one else to protect her. Her parents had died many years ago and now Philip was dead. That made Eleanor Henry’s responsibility, even though she didn’t know it yet.
    They only had to reach the coast to be safe .
     
    It was still dark when Eleanor woke up. That wasn’t unusual; the nuns always woke for prayer in the middle of the night. What disturbed her was that it wasn’t Sister Elizabeth’s quiet voice that was doing the waking. It was a man’s voice and he was impatient.
    “It’s time to get up. We have a long way to go today.”
    Henry, her k idnapper. She pulled free of the hand that was shaking her shoulder and swung herself out of bed. Before she knew it she was sprawled on the floor.
    “Are you hu rt?” Henry was beside her even as she managed to sit up.
    “Very sore. My legs don’t feel right.” They had provided no support as she had tried to stand.
    Henry looked down at her, “I should have stopped earlier yesterday, but we had to put some distance between us and those men. Let me help you up.”
    Eleanor groaned as she tried to stand, but could not mange it, even clinging on to Henry.
    “It will ease as you start to walk, come on.” He reached out his left hand to her and Eleanor took it.
    He helped her to stand then held her round her waist as