A Fateful Wind Read Online Free Page B

from the constant story telling of his younger cousin would be most pleasant. Plus he meant to ask whatever happened to her young servant. He hoped that sly harridan Jenna had not exposed his earlier fondling of her. He consoled himself with the fact she seemed a smart girl. Not only she, but her betrothed love and indeed her father, relied on Penrose for their employment. She would know better than to run the risk of them all being thrown into the workhouse. Hopefully his afternoon liaison with Jenna would be the first of many. He lifted his hands and smelled the sweet scent of her still lingering on his fingers. He remembered the feeling of her full young breasts. Her warm thighs protecting the moist entryway he longed to taste. Good God, this damsel was having an effect on him. He breathed, trying to quell his racing heart.
    “Edwin, you look flushed.” His wife snorted. “It may be wise to lay off the whiskey for one night don’t you think?” She fixed her gaze on him, the look of utter resentment filling the room with a chilly air.
    Lord Edwin smirked. The impudence of the woman! To even look at her made him irksome, that superior gaze of hers as though he were no more than a school boy! He surveyed his wife as she stood before him, a figure of elegance in her fine violet silk dinner gown, her ashen hair pulled back in a bun accentuating the aristocratic features he once found faintly appealing. Now he found them harsh and stern. If only she had been able to conceive, perhaps things would have been different for them, but after three miscarriages and a stillbirth, Edwin gave up any hope of producing an heir. Now, he supposed, his fortune would be passed to Jack, the next in line to the Penrose dynasty. Sometimes, in his very infrequent moments of unselfishness, he wondered if he could have been more forgiving of Emmeline’s ineptitude in the childbearing region. Then he quickly told himself, is that not what a woman is there for, to have children and provide an heir in a proper fashion? As there were no other ties linking Edwin and Emmeline, their relationship grew more and more distant over the years. Now they shared little, no bed, no bedroom, no laughter, no companionship, no respect, and no love. Only a grand house and a fabulous party façade which disappeared as tiredly as the last guest left.

Chapter Four
    Sleep did not come easily to Jack that night. He lay in bed willing his eyes to close, but every time his lids shut, the delicate face of the servant girl filled his thoughts. She portrayed an innocent pure beauty he never saw before. Jack tried hard to understand just what it was about her. The moment he lay her head upon the pillow and she gazed at him with those magnificent turquoise eyes, he felt as though a spell had been placed upon him. Eventually admitting defeat, he stretched his long legs out of bed and opened the window. The night air held a balmy quality Cornwall was famous for in the summertime. It was a false allure for this part of England faced many a severe wintertime gale when the wind and pelting rain would ravage across the moorland beating anything or anyone in its path.
    Jack gazed out into the distance. Under the light of the moon, he could see the outline of the Miner’s cottages that lay beyond. His gaze eked out the middle cottage. Was that a faint glimmer of candlelight or just his imagination? She would be sleeping by now, he hoped. Would she be well enough to return to Penrose Manor to work? He wished it were so. Having little medical experience he found it hard to gage what was wrong with the girl. Food poisoning seemed most probable, but diseases still ravished the impoverished population and it could be something more serious. For all he knew the girl could be pregnant!
    He closed the creaking window frame and climbed back underneath the thick eiderdown. He could not remember the last time a woman had this effect on him. The whole thing left him feeling very vulnerable