Gallant Rogue (Reluctant Heroes Book 3) Read Free Page B

the house. I’ll send a carriage for you in an hour or so if you like.”
    “No. I am finished,” Chloe declared, making herself stand tall and straight. She was finished--with self-pity and despair. She was finished looking back. A full year of mourning, of being morose during the day and crying herself to sleep at night because her husband and child were both dead. It was enough. It was time to move forward. Mourning Gareth would not bring him back. The years with him were the happiest she had ever known. She had to move forward, and in moving forward, she had to make some serious decisions about her life.
    They rode back to the plantation house on the low road abutting the sea. The girls chattered in the back of the open curricle. Lady Greystowe tooled the reins and guided the horse as she and Chloe sat on the front seat. Lady Greystowe was what was termed an original. Women of her high rank would typically have a driver take them everywhere. During her stay, the woman insisted on driving herself about the island instead of allowing one of the count’s grooms to escort her. She was a grand lady in England and yet here on the island estate she seemed to glory in the freedom of being plain Rose O’Flaherty instead of Countess Greystowe.
    “Elizabeth did not share the circumstances of your baby’s passing. Are you able to speak of it?”
    Chloe was jolted out of her musings. “I couldn’t, for a long time. Now, I wish to speak of Baby John’s passing. Others wish me not to.”
    The reins jerked stiff and the horse came to a halt. They sat in the middle of the road, the brilliant, blinding Caribbean sun beating down upon them as Lady Greystowe turned to Chloe with alarm. “Do you mean to tell me Elizabeth doesn’t speak of it with you?”
    Chloe shook her head. “It is not as you suggest, my lady. I will not speak of it to Elizabeth. Not when she is heavy with child. It would make her sad and perhaps hurt the child if she shared my pain. She is like your Angelica. Lady Elizabeth feels the pain of others too keenly. It is for that reason I have withdrawn from her company, to protect her during her confinement.”
    Soft, kid leather fingers covered Chloe’s ungloved hand. “A woman needs to talk of these sorrows,” Lady Greystowe said gently. “Otherwise, it is a poison locked your soul, flavoring your life with bitterness. Please, dear one, talk to me if you have need.”
    Chloe did not expect the grand woman beside her, the wife of an English earl, to be nearly so blunt or so kind. “Thank you.”
    “Aunt Rose, why have we stopped?” Cherie asked with imperviousness that mirrored her father’s autocratic manner. “I’m hungry and the new cook was making us shortbread. Mama will worry if we don’t arrive home precisely on time. She’s a devoted worry worm, as Papa always says, so we mustn’t upset her in her delicate condition.”
    Lady Greystowe arched a brow at Chloe, who returned her look of annoyance at the child’s bossy tone. The two women sighed in unison. She turned about to confront the demanding little miss dressed in grass-stained pink muslin. “You’ll not take that tone with me, do you understand? We shall arrive home when I am quite ready, and not a moment before.” 
    “I’ll tell Papa about this.” Cherie crossed her arms about her little chest and pouted.
    The countess was not troubled by the child’s declaration, as many an anxious servant might be. “Oh, you do that, young lady. You be sure to do so. And I will tell your father how rude and disrespectful you were to your Auntie Rose.”
    Chloe put her hand to her mouth and leaned closer. “That’s the way,” she murmured to the woman beside her. Cherie was always one to test the barriers of how far she could go with a person. Chloe learned, as had others in the household, that the only way to gain Cherie’s obedience was to stand one’s ground when being challenged by the child.
    “Oh...no...don’t tell Papa that .