Free Lady Northam's Wicked Surrender by Vivienne Westlake Page B

instead.
    She sipped her tea, concentrating on its flavor rather than her own disquiet. She favored peppermint over the traditional black tea, and Alice had been kind enough to remember.
    “He will arrive any day,” Alice informed them. “With the baby coming and Lord Waverly not expected to survive the summer, he thought it prudent to come now. I am looking forward to his return.”
    Placing her hand over her friend’s, Rowena leaned closer. “I am sorry to hear that your uncle’s illness has progressed to such a state.”
    “It is done. Lord Waverly was never the type to encourage genuine affection in his relatives. But I shall be elated to finally have my brother home.” Her gaze lingered on Rowena a moment.
    Though it had been such a terrible disaster, somehow Alice had become Rowena’s dear friend in her brother’s absence. Had circumstances been different, they would have been sisters.
     “Lord Rutherford has yet no wife?” Delphine inquired.
    When Alice wasn’t looking, Rowena pinched her. For Delphine’s sake, she had best not be thinking of reacquainting herself with Simon. And if she was inquiring on Rowena’s behalf, it was immaterial as Simon’s marriage plans were the last thing Rowena wanted to know.
    “No, he has not yet claimed a wife,” Alice said, looking at Rowena. Their gazes held for a moment. Rowena forced herself to smile, when all she wanted to do was escape.
    The baby kicked at that moment and they all fawned over Alice. The conversation then continued casually, as if the past had never been. As if Simon and Rowena had never courted. As if he were merely returning from a short trip rather than years spent in India. No one mentioned that Rowena had never forgiven him for abandoning her or that Simon refused to speak to Rowena after she’d married his best friend.
    ****
    An hour later, Rowena was in bed, although peaceful rest proved elusive. She patted her pillow and turned on her side for the hundredth time. How many days would it take Simon to arrive? Would she manage to get through her visit without having to see him at all? And, if she did see him, what would she say? Could she ask him the question that had burned for so many years in her heart? Why did you abandon me?
    She still couldn’t fathom the answer. He’d promised to write to her when he’d gone off to the War in Spain. She thought he intended to propose upon his return, but instead he’d never contacted her at all. His best friend, Paul, convinced her that Simon was a rake, never the type to settle down. That she was one of many conquests. She’d been devastated. Their two months of courtship had been nothing more than an amusement to him. By the time he’d returned to England over a year and a half later, she’d agreed to marry Paul.
    Now he was coming back, threatening to turn her entire world upside down again. Could she survive it a second time?
    Sighing, she shifted and turned her body to the opposite side. It had been so long since she’d seen him at the wedding. Only a few weeks afterward, he’d taken another post in India. Rowena wondered how he looked now. Did he still wear his sideburns short and neatly trimmed? Was he as tall as she remembered?
    With a loud sigh, she turned on her back and stared at the ceiling, invisible in the pitch-dark room. Barely a sliver of light shown through the curtains at the window. There was nothing to distract her from her thoughts. As much as she dreaded seeing him, she couldn’t help her curiosity. A part of her wanted to see his face, to stand beside his tall, muscular frame and—and— What? Yell at him? Strike his cheek? Kiss him? She wanted to…
    Sleep. Rowena’s eyelids were heavy and she couldn’t keep them open any longer. Exhaustion overpowered her thoughts, and she fell into a deep sleep, filled with vivid dreams.
    Warmth spread over her, across her chest, down her arms and thighs. Despite the chill in the air, Rowena twisted in the blankets, her body