Free Samantha James by The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell Page A

Anne sensed any hint of pity, or anything of the like, she wasn’t sure she could have retained her composure. She steadied her breath. Despite her family’s good-natured teasing, she was a practical and sensible young woman.
    Which led to her next thought. Perhaps, she counseled herself cautiously, she should be counting her blessings.
    Caro propped herself up on an elbow. “I have an idea,” she announced. “I think weshould weigh the advantages of your next adventure.”
    Anne wasn’t surprised that Caro knew precisely what she was thinking. Of course, that wasn’t exactly how Anne would have put it, but it would suffice, she supposed.
    Caro continued. “You could do worse, you know.”
    Anne arched a brow. “How so?”
    “Your soon-to-be husband is not a fortune hunter.”
    “Not that we know of,” Anne pointed out.
    “Oh, I’m fairly certain of that. He refused a dowry.”
    Anne had not been aware of that particular fact. It was, she admitted a trifle grudgingly, rather commendable. She’d always considered the practice unpalatable, as if women were no more than beasts to be bartered and sold to the highest bidder! Of course, that did not make her an admirer of him !
    Caro went on breezily. “He’s not old as the ancients. He’s not overly padded in all the wrong places.”
    “Caro!”
    “No, I should never call him a fop.” Caro’s eyes began to sparkle. “Though he is rather fiendishly attractive.”
    Anne was sorely put not to roll her eyes. “Yes, dear, you’ve made your opinion abundantly clear on that score.”
    “Well, imagine if he were not!” Caro stated as only she could. “You’d end up with children who looked like goblins.”
    The corners of Anne’s mouth twitched. No, she decided rather naughtily. That would be her husband who looked like a goblin.
    “I knew I could make you smile!”
    Anne’s smile, however, was extremely short-lived.
    “Annie, what is it?”
    Her eyes slid away from Caro’s. She could not hide her uncertainty. “My life is suddenly…so bizarre,” she said haltingly. “It’s happened so fast. Caro…” She floundered. “I still don’t know how it happened. I’m not even sure why it happened.”
    Caro was still watching her, her lips creased in the tiniest of smiles. “Sometimes it’s just like that.”
    “What?” Anne asked. “What do you mean?”
    Caro looked at her as if she were crazed.
    “Love,” she said simply. “Oh, Annie, sometimes it’s just there and one can’t explain where or how or why or even when it happened. It’s just there.”
    Anne was stunned. “Caro, I—I don’t love him.”
    Caro shook her head. “Annie, I know this is not the way you would have chosen to wed. But I think—oh, I do not know why!—I think it will be all right. That you and Simon…Oh, Annie!
    I don’t know how to say it other than I truly believe that the two of you somehow belong together.”
    Now it was Anne who looked at her as if she were crazed. Caro was such a romantic. There was a sweetness inside her that barred her from the truth. But Caro was wrong, Anne thought vaguely, cringing to the depths of her soul. Her memory allowed no mercy. It appears we shall have to marry. His statement ricocheted through her mind again and again. Caro hadn’t seen the utter lack of emotion in Simon’s eyes, the flatness in his voice.
    She could not imagine Simon Blackwell even capable of something so tender as love.
    Nor could she bear to tell Caro it would never happen—not with Simon Blackwell.
    No, she couldn’t bear for Caro to glimpse her distress.
    She and Caro lay awake long into the night. But it was so very different than it had been when they were young, Anne admitted with a pang. When Caro’s eyes finally closed, Anne slipped from the bed, careful not to awaken her.
    Resting her hip on the windowsill, she gazed long and hard into the cloudless depths of the night.
    Yes, she thought again. So very different…there was no laughter