Tenacious Love (Banished Saga, Book Four): Banished Saga, Book Four Read Online Free

Sav.”
    She flipped the lock and opened the door for her cousin to enter. She spun away to the closet before Savannah had a chance to study her. Clarissa pulled off her torn dress and flung it to the floor. After choosing and donning a simple sky-blue dress that she could pull on over her head and button up without help, she returned to the small room she shared with Gabriel.
    “Aren’t you attending the postparade function at the DAR Continental Hall?” Savannah asked, frowning as she stared at Clarissa’s simple dress. Then she glanced up, noting the bruise on her cheek and blanched. “What happened, Rissa?” She sat in a chair, her already pale features turning more pallid as Clarissa described the march, the vicious attacks, the disparaging comments.
    “Thank God for hatpins,” Clarissa muttered.
    “I never thought I’d hear you say something like that.” Sav giggled.
    “Me neither.” Clarissa sighed as she finally relaxed. She fought a slight trembling at the realization that she was safe, that no one would yell at her, grope her or abuse her in any way.
    “Where’s Gabriel?” Savannah asked, unable to hide the concern in her voice. Her strawberry-blond hair fell in a braid down her back, and she wore a simple eggshell-blue dress, enhancing the blue of her eyes. A shawl in a shade darker than her dress covered her shoulders.
    “Still speaking with Sophie.” Clarissa thrummed her fingers on the table between them.
    “Why should he be there, rather than here with you?”
    Clarissa stared at the table, unwilling to meet her cousin’s gaze. “I was fine without him.” She raised her chin in defiance and false bravado.
    “Maybe you were, and you marched to the end like the brave, determined woman we know you to be. And yet I imagine Gabriel would have liked the opportunity to hold you, ensure for himself you were well.”
    “He had no need,” Clarissa snapped. When Savannah flinched at the harsh tone, she sighed. “Forgive me, Sav. Please?”
    “Why can’t you and Gabriel work to comfort each other, rather than continually causing each other pain and suffering?” Savannah watched her, concern mixed with disappointment.
    Clarissa flushed under her cousin’s close scrutiny, looking away, unable to meet her penetrating gaze. “I know you believe you understand what I’m feeling. But you can’t. No one can.”
    Savannah’s mouth puckered, and she stiffened. “You’re not the only one to have lost a child, Rissa.”
    “And, if I recall correctly, it took you longer than four months to recover.”
    Savannah jerked as though Clarissa had slapped her, and Clarissa instantly regretted her words. “Sav, I’m truly sorry.”
    “No, as you’ve said, how could I possibly understand? Thus, there’s no point in me even offering you solace when you so desperately desire to cling to your misery.” She rose, quivering with indignation. “For, unlike you, Rissa, I relished the support Jeremy, Sophie, Aunt Betsy, anyone gave me. After being alone for so long, after enduring the terrible isolation thrust upon me by Jonas, I yearned for their succor as it slowly brought me back to myself.”
    For a moment Clarissa saw Savannah’s despair, which she hid from everyone, except Jeremy.
    Savannah murmured, “I know you will never recover. I know the pain is with you always. But you decide if the future you want is one filled with rancor.”
    Clarissa blinked away tears and looked toward her clenched hands, gripped so tightly they were white. “He won’t talk to me,” she whispered haltingly. “He won’t touch me.”
    “Not even after a day like today?” Savannah eased into her chair again, her gaze focused on her cousin.
    “No. The only time he touches me is when we are in public and when he feels he needs to offer me his elbow or steer me through a crowd with a hand on my back. Otherwise, nothing.”
    “That’s not like Gabriel. He always held your hand, stroked your cheek or hugged you. He