Free The Hungry Heart Fulfilled (The Hunger of the Heart Series Book 3) by Shannon Farrell

in
    November. So I
    ask you again,
    Father, when did you go to Grosse Ile to look for Emer and her
    family?” Dalton
    demanded.
     
     
“Just what are you
    accusing me of,
    son?” Frederick shot back angrily.
     
     
“Nothing yet, but I
    want the
    truth. Did you
    ever meet with
    Emer?”
     
     
Frederick sat in
    stony silence.
     
     
Dalton threw up his
    hands in exasperation,
    and began to pace up and down in front of his father's desk.
     
     
“You did. You must
    have. You told me
    she had red hair, though you claimed she had died by the time
    you got to Grosse
    Ile. And I would
    stake my life on
    it that she recognized you in the cathedral that day. So why
    are you both lying
    to me?"
     
     
When his father
    remained stubbornly
    silent, he began to puzzle it out for himself. "Ever since
    I’ve come home,
    people have been lying to me, covering things up. Emer looks at me
    like a watchful,
    wounded animal, and
    doesn’t want anything to do with me. Now I find this letter in the
    possession of the bishop. Where is the ring I
    sent to accompany
    it? Does Emer
    have it?”
     
     
“No, of course not. I, well, the girl
    was dead, after all,
    so I gave it to Madeleine Lyndon as a token of your esteem.”
     
     
Dalton's eyes
    rounded. “You had no
    right! And
    that’s another thing,
    you keeping that absurd engagement open all this time despite
    the fact that I
    told you in August and again in November that I had no
    intention of ever
    marrying Madeleine Lyndon!”
     
     
“But you have to
    marry her now. In
    less than forty-eight hours you're
    due to walk down the aisle with her!” Frederick insisted.
     
     
Dalton shook his
    head. “But I don’t
    love or esteem her, Father. Beside Emer, Madeleine pales into
    insignificance.
    You should have seen the two of them at the Hearsts the other
    night. Madeleine
    showed her true colors, and is not a woman I could ever admire
    or esteem. Nor
    did anyone else compared with Emer."
     
     
"That jumped up
    little hussy
    could obviously charm the birds from the trees. But I thought
    you were smarter
    than that!"
     
     
"I'm sorry, Father,
    but Emer is
    none of those things, and I will thank you not to speak
    disrespectfully of the
    woman I love."
     
     
"But Madeleine is
    worth ten of
    her—"
     
     
"Only on your
    balance sheet,
    Father, but certainly not on mine!"
     
     
Frederick slammed
    his fist down on
    the desk so loudly even the windows rattled. "I can't believe
    you would
    throw away all we've ever worked for—"
     
     
"It's not just
    because of Emer,
    Father, it's my medical career as well. I know this has been your
    fondest wish for some time, a
    merger between
    ourselves and the Lyndons, but I can’t go through with it, no
    matter how much
    you try to persuade me otherwise. And I certainly have no intention
    of marrying her when
    there is the
    slightest hope that Emer will forgive me for what she seems to
    think I’ve done
    to her. Now I
    want the truth, and
    I want it now. Have
    you ever seen
    Emer before?” Dalton demanded.
     
     
Frederick could see
    the game was up.
    He decided that perhaps telling the truth to his son for once
    might gain him
    what he had sought to win through lies and deception.
     
     
“All right, yes,
    yes I did! In
    November, when I thought you were
    coming home. She
    was writing all
    sorts of wild letters to you, pestering us for money. I
    thought she was going
    to try to blackmail us over your past with her, so I went to
    see her.
     
     
"She asked for
    money, and I
    gave it her under the promise that she would never see you
    again. She
    agreed, took the banker's draft,
    and that was the end of it.
    I told
    you she was dead to protect you, son. I thought it was better you
    think of her as an honest
    young woman
    instead of the grasping harlot she really was,” Frederick said
    in this most
    wheedling tone.
     
     
Dalton slapped his
    palm down on the
    deck dismissively. “You’re lying. I don’t believe a word of