DefeatedbyLove Read Online Free

upheaval.
    “No.” She shook her head. “I haven’t seen Harry in almost
nine years.”
    Several shocked moments passed before Daniel had the
presence of mind to close his gaping mouth. “I see,” he said lamely. By sheer
force of will he kept himself from glancing at her stomach again.
    “Well, I’ve heard from him. But not in over four years. He
used to write at least once a year to tell me where he’d been and what he’d
been doing and to check that I had received the money he’d sent. He always sent
a very precise accounting.”
    “How kind and generous of him,” Daniel replied. He wasn’t
sure she caught the sarcasm in his tone. The blackguard. Abandonment seemed to
be a way of life for him. Apparently Daniel had been only the first one, not
the last.
    “Oh, I didn’t mind his leaving. That sounds awful, doesn’t
it?” She frowned. “What you must think of me at this point.” With a sigh, she
shook her head. “You see, we really hardly knew each other. Although we did
become good chums the few days before and after the wedding, before he left. He
had good reasons for going, and I’ve had a good life with him gone.” She rolled
her eyes. “I’m not really painting myself in a good light, am I?”
    “No, no, it’s fine,” he assured her. “Clearly we are talking
about unusual circumstances.”
    “Harry was right,” she said. “You are easy to talk to.”
    “Harry said that?” Daniel asked, agog that Harry had spoken
of him at any length.
    “Not in so many words,” she hedged, glancing away. “But he
did leave me your direction.”
    “Indeed. Continue.” Daniel’s curiosity was ablaze by now.
What on earth could this woman want from him?
    “Well, suffice it to say that I haven’t seen Harry in a
while. I’ve been leading a quiet life in Surrey.” Daniel did allow himself to
look at her stomach at that outlandish lie. “Well, mostly quiet,” she said, her
cheeks growing red again. “I chose not to live with Harry’s family. Have you
met them?”
    “No. I haven’t had the pleasure.”
    “It’s one you can do without, trust me.” She licked her lips
nervously. “This is the sketchy part. You see, because I hadn’t seen Harry in a
good long while, I was…lonely.” She paused again.
    “Completely understandable,” Daniel said, trying to be
sympathetic.
    “But where I live, in Surrey, as a married lady, I’m
really…not available.” Another pause.
    “I do believe that’s the general rule everywhere, not just
in Surrey.”
    She nodded at Daniel’s observation. “True. But from what I
understand it is easily gotten around in some places.”
    Daniel had to suppress a smile as he thought of so many of
his friends and the wives they shared, one wife with two husbands. Too bad Mrs.
Christine Ashbury hadn’t married one of them instead of Harry.
    “Well, one thing led to another—you know, that old story of
the handsome coachman—and here I am.”
    “There’s an old story about a handsome coachman?” Daniel
asked, bewildered. “What does that have to do with you being here?”
    She gave an aggrieved sigh. “Bored wife and handsome
coachman?” she said. “Are girls the only ones warned about that story?”
    Daniel was having trouble following the conversation. Mrs.
Ashbury and Simon would get along well. “So you had a dalliance with a handsome
coachman?” he asked, just to clarify.
    “Well, you don’t have to put it so bluntly,” she said in a
shocked voice.
    “I’m sorry,” he said, “but I thought we were speaking
bluntly. Weren’t you?”
    She sniffed in that way women had that let you know you’ve
trespassed where you ought not. “No I was not. But since you insist, yes, I
did.”
    “And this,” he said as he waved a hand at her vaguely, “is
the result?”
    “Yes,” she said primly, though God knew how she managed to
pull it off under the circumstances.
    It was Daniel’s turn to sigh. “While this is…fascinating,
Mrs. Ashbury, I’m