Chapters (50)
- Cover
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- The Pengarron Sagas
- The Harvey Family Sagas
She thrust her arms into her dressing gown, pulling silk threads in her haste.
Oliver swallowed the bile in his throat that formed at her outburst. ‘You can’t mean that, Kerensa. I know I’ve done a terrible thing, but you’re not going to let it tear us apart, are you? By God, don’t you think I feel just as wretched as you do? Even more so? I know what I nearly did, that Kane or Harry or both of them could have died, that Kane has a long fight yet until he’s hale again. I’d cut off my own leg if it would undo the damage to his. I understand why Jessica can’t forgive me, I insulted and then very nearly harmed her father and half-sister.’
Oliver paused, staring at her unresponsive face. Had he not good reason to be angry too? ‘Why do you feel this strongly? You must know I’d never wish to hurt any of my family, and I only sought to put Trenchard in his place. Does it mean nothing to you, what he said to me in front of our friends?’
‘No, nothing whatsoever. I’ve no care about keeping the right appearance in society,’ Kerensa said, from halfway towards her dressing room.
What did he mean, put Clem in his place? All Clem had ever done was to love her. She had given him her promise to marry him. Was it so unthinkable that he should have been heartbroken? She and Clem had shared a love stolen from them. They had not drifted apart as sweethearts sometimes do. Marriage for them would have been a wonderful, fulfilling success, not something that would have faded or died in the course of time. It was this that stuck in Oliver’s craw! This man, who, for all his excellent ways, sometimes behaved as if all that mattered were his wishes, his desires.
All the emotion and resentment building up inside her burst out in a dam of bitterness. ‘You make me sick!’
Thrusting himself off the bed Oliver strode towards her, his long legs bare beneath the nightshirt he rarely wore. He yanked the dressing-room door from her hand, forbidding her entrance.
‘Get away from me.’
‘I’m sorry to use my strength against you, Kerensa, but before I let you go I will have it out of you, what exactly is on your mind. It’s because it was Clem Trenchard and no other, isn’t it, that you’re so angry with me? Do you still love the man? Is this what it’s all about?’