Free To Bedevil A Beauty (Southern Sanctuary - Book 5) by Jane Cousins

her
shoulders that never frizzed or curled.  Her eyes were blue and she was a
few inches shorter than Berry and less curvy in shape, though clearly Berry had
inherited her mother's wide smile and straight nose.
    Sitting
on the edge of the bed Kimberly reached over to brush back a stray dark curl
from Berry’s all too pale face.  “Better?”
    “Much. 
Thankyou.  Where’s Dad?”
    “He
volunteered with some of the enforcers to help search the Nature Reserve. 
Don’t worry, Chief Hughes is under the assumption that the local neighbourhood
watch group are just a bunch of eager helpful do-gooders.”
    Berry,
held her tongue.  Ramsey was pretty savvy, she doubted he thought any such
thing.
    “Elijah.” 
Her mother referred to the head of the enforcement team.  “Can be very
persuasive.  I called your brother, told him what happened.  He’ll
try to get back here as soon as he can.”
    “He
doesn’t need too.”  Berry bit back a sigh.  Her brother’s work was
important.
    “You
know there’s such a thing as too independent don’t you?”  Kimberly
frowned.  “Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. We’re family, it’s
what we do.”
    Berry
bit her lip. Funny, what some might label as being helpful, others might
interpret as outright interference.
    Kimberly
read the stubborn look in her daughter’s eyes.  “When are you going to
stop blaming the family?”
    Berry
recoiled slightly.  “I don’t blame the family for getting shot.”
    Kimberly
smiled, but it wasn’t in humour.  “I was talking about your marriage and
subsequent… parting.”
    “That’s
ridiculous, I don’t blame the family for either of those things.”
    “I
think you do.  You need to look at things from your Grandfather’s
perspective.”  Kimberly was referring to her father, Edward, the head of
the High Council.  “When Aunt Alma’s husband died and she left the
Sanctuary, no one, least of all Dad, thought she’d stay away for twenty-two
years.  That’s a long time for the family to be without a match
maker.  You know as well as I do that keeping the Sanctuary grid
functioning is a numbers game.  Without matches, without off-spring, it
doesn’t take a fancy law degree to do the math does it?  So when you rang
Dad saying that you were pregnant five years ago…”
    “I
was tricked!  I was never pregnant.”  Berry reminded through gritted
teeth.
    Kimberly
patted Berry’s leg but kept on talking as if she hadn’t been interrupted. 
“Your news was like a beacon in the dark.  A baby, even born outside of a
meld match would still be family.”
    “More
like I was an experiment.”  Berry rolled her eyes.  “Maybelle as acting-match maker turns up in Sydney
the next day and proceeds to let Robert flatter the hell out of her. 
Before I know it, I have High Council approval to get married.” 
    “I
know Dad regrets everything, and you have to know I do too, Berry.  I
should have come to see you, perhaps if I’d met Robert I might have seen him
for what he was.  It’s just you’ve always been so…”
    “Self-sufficient?” 
Berry queried.
    “I
was going to say stubborn.  Ever since you were little.  You always
seemed to know exactly what you were doing and where you were going without any
input from your father or I.”
    Berry
hadn’t realised her mother had been blaming herself for the wreck of her
marriage.  Well how could she?  She’d been avoiding spending one on
one time with any of her close relatives from almost the moment the ring had
been placed on her finger.  Too embarrassed to admit she’d made a colossal
mistake.
    Goddess,
she really was a stubborn fool.  “I don’t blame the family for my
marriage, Mum. I blame myself.  I couldn’t see Robert for who… what, he
was.  When he said he loved me, couldn’t live without me, I hesitated.   Even when that doctor friend of Robert’s told
me I was pregnant, even with Maybelle’s gushing approval, I hesitated. 
And