A Fateful Wind Read Online Free

beloved Trystan. A man with no work in this part of the world is a workhouse man. Do you understand?”
    Jenna quivered with fear, the unsettling mixture of anger and fright halting her voice. She felt the bile in her throat. She was going to be sick. She felt Lord Edwin retrieve his hand from her breasts, bringing them down to unbutton the front of his trousers. He breathed heavy now, raspy and abrasive as pressed his member against her thigh.
    Oh good God, he’s going to rape me , Jenna thought fearfully, her gaze scanning the table in front of her, searching in vain for anything with which she could fend off her employer. He halted suddenly as the sound of Cook’s footsteps coming down the hall led Lord Edwin to hastily retreat, doing up his trouser buttons and moving to the other side of the kitchen. With one lecherous look in Jenna’s direction, he grabbed one of the pasties from the table.
    “Ah, yes. I almost forgot.” He laughed with a wink. “When you see that lucky fiancé of yours, please tell him I wish to see him here at sundown on Sunday eve.”
    * * * *
    Jenna pressed her forehead against the cool granite wall and wiped her mouth. Her stomach wretched over the thought of Lord Edwin’s fingers against her skin. How she longed to bathe or throw herself in the brook to cleanse her body of his memory. She cursed herself. She knew of his perverse ways and, whilst at Penrose Manor, she always tried to make sure she was never alone with the brute. Wearily, she stood up from behind the hedge and made her way back to the house, trying to steady herself as a light-headed feeling of faintness swept over her body.
    “Jenna!” Lady Emmeline’s voice shrilled through the still evening air. “Jenna, you look as weak as a lamb!” She rushed over to where Jenna clung weakly to the hedge. Her face filled with concern as she wrapped her arms around Jenna in an apparent effort to steady her.
    “What is it, Lady Emmeline?” A man’s voice preceded heavy footsteps running along the gravel path.
    Jenna wished they would all go away, leave her here to lie on the cool ground. She wanted to die. She still felt Edwin’s hand upon her breast, heard his bullying words in her ears, felt the frigid fear as he pressed his manhood against her thigh. Clutching her stomach, she rushed once more to behind the hedge unable to keep the bile down.
    “Oh, Jack. Thank goodness you’re here. Help me carry the girl inside. It seems as though she has been stricken with a sickness.” Lady Emmeline removed her lace handkerchief from her pocket and began dabbing around Jenna’s mouth, smoothing the hair away from her forehead with her lace gloved hands.
    “Why, Emmeline, she is as cold as night.” He removed his woolen tailcoat, draped it across her shoulders and took her tiny hand in his as he knelt down in front of her. “Can you walk?”
    Jenna nodded, comforted by the expression in his eyes. Wearily, she got to her feet, only to fall once more into the strangers arms.
    “Here, reach into my pocket, Emmeline, and retrieve my brandy flask.” Slowly, the stranger brought the silver flask up toward Jenna's mouth. The cold metal felt good against her lips. She swallowed the brandy, its warmth permeating through her body.
    “Oh, Jenna,” Lady Emmeline soothed, brushing the hair away from Jenna’s face. “Is it something you have eaten perhaps?”
    Jenna nodded, resting her head against the stranger’s chest. She could feel the softness of his silk puff tie against her cheek, the comforting smell of the stranger’s pipe lulling her into a false contentment.
    Lady Emmeline lifted the brandy flask once more to Jenna’s lips. “The color is returning to her cheeks, Jack. But I think she ought to be taken home. Goodness knows she may be contagious. I will order Humphreys to load up the carriage.”
    Jack looked up at the sun. It had just disappeared beyond the peak of Sharptor, casting shadows over the moorland that lay