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.He looked devastatingly handsome in a dark blue suit with long tails in the back, and a white cravat at his neck.His hair was slicked back, and his beard looked neatly trimmed.I found myself staring at him.Elizabeth disrupted my staring when she sauntered over to our group all proud and bosomy, and greeted her husband’s aunt Catherine, Jonas, and then stopped in front of me.“Hello, Madeline,” she sneered, and then she looked at William.“And who might you be?”“Hello, Elizabeth,” I answered her.“This is Mr.William Brown.He helps Jonas out on the plantation.”“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” William said, taking her hand and kissing it politely.I cringed.I just couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to touch her, not Ethan and not even William.Yet, much as I hated to admit it, she did look very pretty.She was obviously happy.I envied that and hated her for it.She took away my happiness.“So you’re the Mr.Brown I’ve heard so much about.So nice to meet you.” She made her way to the table then and began eating while conversing with some of the other ladies again.Ethan greeted Jonas and Catherine, and then came to me.“Madeline, you look…” His eyes looked me up and down admiringly and then rested on my eyes.“…ravishing,” he said quietly.He picked up my hand and kissed it slowly and softly.I closed my eyes briefly, enjoying the feel of his lips on my hand, his fingers touching mine.He let go of my hand reluctantly and then greeted William.“Good to see you again, Will,” he said, shaking his hand.He quietly joined Elizabeth at the table of food.He looked like he’d lost weight, probably from all the work with the harvest.He was too thin.I ate some crab cakes and finished my tea.Ethan moved to the opposite side of the table, and glanced across the table at me more than once.William excused himself, as he and Jonas walked over to greet some fellow farmers who’d just entered the room.Hannah Carter, my friend I hadn’t seen since getting my memory back, greeted me with a surprised look on her face.“Madeline! It’s been so long since I’ve seen you,” she drawled, with her lovely thick Southern accent.“What have you been doing with yourself for the last year?” I began to fill her in on what had happened to me for the past year, leaving out the romantic details, of course.We talked about old times growing up, and about our party we had at her house when we turned 16, when we were introduced to society.It had been common knowledge that Ethan and I would eventually marry, as it was rumored that our families wanted us together to keep the wealth in both of our families.Ethan and I had been more than fine with that since we’d fallen in love already.At the time, Hannah had yet to find a beau, and of course flirted with Ethan herself from time to time, so I asked her if she’d found one yet.“Why, yes, I did.I married Henry Adams.Do you remember him? He lived across the water in City Point.We’ve been married about six months now.”“That’s wonderful, Hannah.I’m so happy for you.”“Thank you.I was awful sorry to hear about your accident and then Ethan marrying that Elizabeth girl.” She lowered her voice to a whisper.“Just between you and me, I don’t like her too much.She comes from white trash, I hear.Why, she was the housemaid before she and Ethan got married.I really wish you were still with him.” She always had been quite snobbish, but at least she was on my side when it came to Ethan.“Me, too, Hannah.”I glanced at Ethan, who ate on the other side of the room in the corner of the dining room close to the hallway.He chatted with other men from time to time but not engaging in any long conversations.Elizabeth stood close by him, talking with her friends.While talking with Hannah, I kept glancing over at him, and I caught him looking at me every time I glanced his way.Every time.Elizabeth had apparently not observed this, for she kept chattering away and laughing lightly.Hannah introduced me to her husband when he walked up to us.His family was into cotton and cotton gins, Hannah bragged.She then lured him out to the hall for some dancing.“Come join us, Madeline,” she motioned to me to follow her.“Maybe in a bit,” I replied.I would have loved to dance with Ethan, but that was not possible.I looked over at him; he was still staring at me.Honestly, he shouldn’t stare so, he would make people talk.He normally was very conversant with his own friends and fellow plantation owners, and yet tonight, he was quiet for the most part, not mingling around.Perhaps he was fatigued.Or perhaps he was in shock, seeing me and suspecting my condition.I wondered if he was mulling over in his head all the things I’d been going through, and counting back to when we had relations in June.If so, he was bound to corner me someplace and ask me about it.I was not ready to talk to him about it, so I found William and asked him to dance with me.We passed Ethan on the way out of the dining room, and he nodded at us, but continued to look at me longingly and curiously.The dance hall was crowded, but William and I danced an appropriate waltz as best we could.It didn’t feel right dancing with him, in this house, though he did seem to know what he was doing.“You’re doing some fine dancing, Mr.Brown,” I observed.“Thank you, ma’am.” He leaned his head close to mine to speak softly into my ear discreetly, “Ethan can’t keep his eyes off of you.”“You noticed,” I said, realizing others were bound to have noticed, as well.I supposed it could be sort of expected, since we had been married before.“That’s one of the reasons why I coaxed you onto the dance floor, to keep the murmuring down.”“Do you think he knows your condition?”“If you guessed it easy enough, he’s bound to,” I said.“He’s not been around you as much as I have.”“No, but he knows me better than you do, and he has seen me go through this before.He also saw me heaving the night of the big storm when he had to stay over.” I looked at Ethan then, thinking of that night when we’d kissed and he declared he couldn’t stand living without me anymore.“What will you tell him if he asks you about it?” William asked.I looked back at William.His eyes were on mine, penetrating, seeking an answer.“I honestly don’t know yet,” I said, and looked away.We continued to dance, and I looked around, observing the other dancing couples.The music switched to a slower, more romantic tune, one that I’d played on the piano before for Ethan, and I could no longer dance with William.I pulled away from him, almost colliding with Ethan in the process, who was on his way out the river-front door to the courtyard
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IndexCidney Swanson [Saving Mars Saving Mars (epub)
Christine Wood [Life Plan 01] A Life Plan Without You (epub)
Clair Delaney [Coral 01] Coral (epub)
Christine Cody [Bloodlands 01 Bloodlands (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 3 (epub)
Christine Flynn [The Hunt for Once Upon a Christmas Eve (epub
Christian Fletcher [The Left Left on the Brink (epub)
Christopher G Nuttall [Royal The Royal Sorceress (epub)
Christina Ross [Unleash Me, A Unleash Me, Vol 1 (epub)
Głuchowski Piotr, Hołub Jacek Ojciec Tadeusz Rydzyk