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Back A Man of Honor
Chapters (71)
  1. Copyright Notice
  2. Dedication
  3. Part One
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Part Two
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Part Three
  38. Thirty-Three
  39. Thirty-Four
  40. Thirty-Five
  41. Thirty-Six
  42. Thirty-Seven
  43. Thirty-Eight
  44. Thirty-Nine
  45. Forty
  46. Forty-One
  47. Forty-Two
  48. Forty-Three
  49. Forty-Four
  50. Part Four
  51. Forty-Five
  52. Forty-Six
  53. Forty-Seven
  54. Forty-Eight
  55. Forty-Nine
  56. Fifty
  57. Fifty-One
  58. Fifty-Two
  59. Fifty-Three
  60. Part Five
  61. Fifty-Four
  62. Fifty-Five
  63. Fifty-Six
  64. Fifty-Seven
  65. Fifty-Eight
  66. Fifty-Nine
  67. Sixty
  68. Sixty-One
  69. Books by Barbara Taylor Bradford
  70. About the Author
  71. Newsletter Sign-up

“Let’s sit down here near the fire,” Sarah said. “She got married young, to Anthony Welles. He was in the Royal Navy, but sadly he got killed just at the end of the Boer War in 1902. He was lost at sea. Angela is a widow.”

“Oh, how terrible. ’Tis sorry I am to be hearing that. So young to be a widow,” he said, startled by this news.

“She’s twenty-four,” Sarah told him. “But I know she doesn’t look it.”

“Not at all,” Blackie murmured, knowing he had filled with relief at Sarah’s words, although a hint of sadness flickered in his mind that Angela had lost her husband and she so young.

He knew one other thing. He wanted this woman with a great fierceness that seemed to overwhelm him. And he meant to have her, whatever it took.

Nothing like this had ever happened to Blackie O’Neill, ever before in his young life. His instant and intense attraction to Angela Welles had startled him. Now he sat rigid in the chair, as if frozen. His eyes never left the kitchen door and when Sarah spoke to him, he paid no attention.

Sarah grabbed his arm. She said in a low but firm voice, “You’re in some sort of trance. Pull yourself together before my sister comes back.” She tightened her grip on his arm, and finally he turned his head to look at her.

“I’m not in a trance; I’m just taken aback, sure and I am. What man wouldn’t be, I be asking ye? Angela has … great beauty, Sarah.”

“I know it. Now you do, and so does the entire world. At least, those who’ve met her do. Men are agog, just as you are. And women, and children, and dogs and horses. And even birds, I suppose.”

There had been laughter in Sarah’s voice as she had said these words, and Blackie couldn’t help chuckling. “In fact, she’s a genuine knockout, I be thinking. I stared at her, Sarah, and she stared back.… Our eyes met and held.” He cleared his throat. “Do ye think she would go ter the Dance Hall, if I be inviting her?”

Sarah, looking shocked, shook her head vehemently. “Oh no, she’d never go there, not be seen alive there. If you ask her out, you’d have to take her out somewhere more elegant. Perhaps the theater or the music hall. Or one of the nice restaurants. In Leeds.”

“Oh, I see; well, I can do that, sure I can, on the heads of the Blessed Saints, I would.”

Although his prompt acceptance of this suggestion had surprised Sarah, she kept silent for a moment, before asking, “Do you know any of them? What I mean is, are you familiar with any special restaurants in Leeds?”