Free The Letter by Rebecca Bernadette Mance Page A

were never going to marry, Victoria, you said you wanted to be free of men. I am giving you a chance to live exactly as you wish, but still enjoy a little of life’s bounty.” He leaned forward and captured her hand. She struggled to pull away from him.
    “ I do not wish what you are proposing and you know that is not what was in my mind. You are extremely arrogant to imagine that being intimate with you is experiencing life’s bounty!”
    “ What I am proposing will benefit both of us, I promise, and you will have the store.”
    “ Your price is too high, your suggestion absurd and reprehensible” she proclaimed, snatching her hand back and trying to quell her body’s sinful reaction to his words and compelling persuasion.
    “ You don’t have to decide tonight,” he said quietly. “I want you to relax and calm down. There is no need to run away. I am not going to force myself on you, Victoria. This is your decision.”
    No need to run away? That was his opinion.
    “ I have already had money sent to your sister,” he said.
    “ Mandy?” she squeaked. “No! How dare you! I don’t want her to know anything about any of this.”
    “ I had the money sent in your name she knows nothing about me,” he said, reassuring her. “I know she needs things, new things, like dresses and I wanted to ease your worries so you could make an objective decision.”
    “ How do you know anything about Mandy at all? You leave her out of this.”
    A lump formed in Victoria’s throat. He knew her vulnerabilities. And he was using them against her. William Worthington was more dangerous then she ever imagined.
    “ I must ask her to send the money back,” she said, fighting valiantly against the thoughts of Mandy’s mended gowns and shoes that needed repairing.
    “ No, it is hers, no matter what decision you make,” he said, putting his hand under her chin and caressing her face. “It is a gift, the least I can do to make amends for my previous neglect.”
    “ Why are you doing this to me?” Controlling her quivering voice, Victoria resisted the urge to scream the question to him. “You are a horrible man.”
    And she always thought the devil had horns and a red, pointy tail. How very wrong she had been.
    “ I believe helping your sister is a rather kind gesture and I think my offer is a fair offer. After all, you don’t want to be married, you said so yourself, in fact you are almost a spinster now.” He spoke in an annoyingly practical tone. “It isn’t as if you are saving yourself for a husband. And what an utter shame for you to never know passion with a man.”
    His words struck a raw nerve.
    “ Spoken by an arrogant man…as if that is the only thing a woman could possibly need to fulfill her life. Furthermore, my choice not to marry doesn’t make me into the kind of woman you are insinuating or make you the right man to concern himself with my personal matters.”
    “ Having intimacy in your life outside of marriage does not make you ‘that kind of woman’ Victoria, it is only your provincial upbringing that gives you such a mind on the matter.”
    “ What about you?” she asked. “You will soon be married. What would your fiancé think of such abominable behavior?”
    “ I told you before, that is a separate matter.”
    “ Perhaps she would not think so…but as things are, you can probably marry no matter what relationship you have with me.”
    “ Victoria, do you plan to marry? Tell me that? Do you have a cowboy at home you have set your cap for?”
    “ Don’t be so condescending to the men at home…they would never suggest such a thing. Anyway, I told you that I didn’t have any man in mind for myself.”
    Victoria knew in that instant that there never would be a “cowboy” in her future because in that trice she knew her folly. She had fallen for an arrogant, cold man who would use her flesh and break her heart. And his name was William Worthington.
    Heart wrenching sadness swept over her