Free Winter's Edge by Anne Stuart Page B

to that relationship, finalize the divorce, and then be on her merry little way.
    Somehow the idea didn’t warm her in the slightest.
    THE DAY IN NEW HOPE was a complete success. They had lunch in an elegant little French restaurant just opened for the season, dining sumptuously on the rich French food despite Mrs. Morse’s warning glance.
    _And then they went on a buying spree, jeans and khakis, cotton sweaters and denim shirts, leather boots, a tweed jacket, flannel nightgowns and running shoes. Mrs.
    Morse looked scandalized at her extravagance in an amused sort of way, and when Molly finally finished she contented herself with the comment that she didn’t do things by half measures.
    “Though I must say, Molly, that these clothes are much better suited to you than the ones that Mrs. Canning had you buy. I just hope you don’t go through these as fast.”
    “I don’t plan to,” she said from over the tower of ~ packages that surrounded them in the front seat and completely filled the back of the van.
    “I expect these will last me for a long, long time.”
    “Well, that’s nice. And Patrick will just love the sweater you bought for him, I know he will.”
    Once more Molly was filled with misgivings.
    “Do you really think so?”
    she asked anxiously, her cheerfulness fading. The thick blue cotton sweater would match his cold eyes perfectly, and yet Molly doubted h~ ~ad any desire to accept presents from her. Maybe gig d just put it away in a drawer until he had a birthday or something. Assuming she was going to be his birthday. Otherwise she could just give
     
    it to him as a divorce present. For some reason she doubted the thought would amuse him.
    She was putting her new clothes away in the ugly dresser when a shadow fell across the doorway. She looked up, into the scowling face of her handsome husband.
    “I thought you should have these. while you’re here,” he said abruptly, tossing a small box onto the bed.
    “Despite your insistence that you’d never wear them, they are yours.”
    She knew what she’d find in that small, ivory box. Her wedding and engagement rings lay nestled against gray velvet. Neither of them struck any chord in her memory, the plain gold band nor the large sapphire in the old-fashioned setting. She slipped them on her ring finger, noting helplessly the perfect fit. Circumstances seemed determined to make her accept what her mind still found unacceptable. She was, it seemed, the selfish and spoiled wife of a brooding and very angry man. It was useless to waste any more time denying it.
    She looked up at him, but there was no reading the expression on his face.
    “Why did I decide to take them off?” she asked.
    “Did I leave them behind when I left?”
    “You never wore them.”
    He’d managed to shock her.
    “Why not?”
    “You can cut the innocent surprise, Molly. You know perfectly well you threw them back at me the morning after we were married.”
    “You were that bad in bed?” she asked lightly.
    He stared at her, an odd expression in his eyes.
    “You must have thought so,” was all he said, turning on his heel to leave her.
    She watched him go, wishing there was some way she could interpret that odd expression on his face.
    Another mystery, among too many mysteries. She changed into a pair of khakis and a navy cotton sweater before making her way down to the kitchen. She was in the midst of peeling potatoes, temporarily alone in the vast, comfortable room, when Patrick reappeared. He looked at her, seemed about to beat a hasty retreat, and then obviously thought better of it. It appeared her husband was no more a coward than she was.
    He moved into the room with that undeniable grace and leaned against the counter, a few feet away from her.
    “I see you decided to wear your rings,” he said in that husky voice which she found so inexplicably attractive.
    Unfortunately she found everything about the man inexplicably attractive, from his lean, austere face to