Some Enchanted Dream: A Time Travel Adventure (Seasons of Enchantment Book 2) Read Free Page B

tight you nearly die from the harsh crush. Her pain was grief, not a physical affliction, yet her heart felt just as raw and empty as her womb.
    A hand touched her shoulder, cupping it from behind. “My sweet Tara,” the voice was thick, deepened nearly to a savage growl from sorrow. The hand lifted slightly, and the weight of a man made the mattress dip beside her.
    Tara held her breath to stifle her tears as Adrian wrapped his arms about her from behind. She didn’t want to cry in front of him.  It didn’t matter what she wanted. The harsh sobs ripped past her resolve.
    “My precious girl,” he whispered, “I’m sorry. There will be others.”
    “But I wanted this one !” Defiance rushed forth at his words. Tara rolled over to look at him. Her face was saturated with tears. “Don’t you dare speak so callously! Have you no heart? It was your baby, too.”
    Adrian’s face registered shock. “I’m only seeking to comfort you.”
    A pained grimace twisted her features. Pain consumed her once more as harsh, frantic sobs overwhelmed Tara.
    His arms pulled her tight again. This time she was facing him. Tara melted bonelessly into his solid frame, grateful for his strong arms as she wept for their lost child.
    Adrian just held her and rubbed her back in a comforting manner.
    Gradually, the anger she felt at his words dissolved, as did the harsh tears.
    She lay silent in his arms, quiet and full of regret. “I’m sorry.” It was a bare whisper, an insufficient plea for attacking the man who loved her, the man who gave her a child nearly three months past.
    “I know.” His lips pressed against her brow in a silent kiss. “I know, sweetheart.”
    His words were freeing, and yet, their power brought only more sorrow and shame. She lashed out at the one person who understood her pain, the one person who shared it. Like a wounded animal she had briefly turned on her comforter. Tara reached up to touch his face. She stroked the ebony locks away in search of the flesh of his cheek. Moisture beneath her fingers etched another scar on her breaking heart. Adrian was crying, too.
    “I wanted this child as much as you. Never doubt for a moment that I would not love our little one as fiercely as I love you. Was it a son or daughter?”
    The burning pain behind her eyes rose to blur the room. “It was too early to tell.”
    He said nothing. Tara swallowed the hurt and tried to remain calm as the tempest grew in her breast again.
    Adrian took her hand from his wet cheek and lifted it to his lips. He kissed her knuckles, slowly, deliberately, singling out each one separately from smallest to largest, and then he gently opened her fist to kiss her palm.  “I love you. And I’ll do whatever it takes to make you smile again.”
     

Chapter Two
    The rooms were quiet. Too quiet.
    Tara slipped from the warmth of the feather mattress and emerged from the old brass bed. Several days passed. She'd lost count of their number in her grief. She stood at the door and tilted her head, straining to hear any movements in the room beyond.
    Nothing, dead silence .
    Pain welled up, complete with stinging tears at the ugly thought, the ugly phrase.
    She gasped and struggled to control her emotions. She knew she was hopelessly out of balance with the hormones from pregnancy still surging through her. Worse for it, she feared the men had all abandoned her to her grief. Some men were idiots when it came to emotional issues, and men of the past were worse. At least in the twenty-first century men were allowed to show emotions. Adrian wasn’t from the future. He was from the rigid past.
    She opened the door to the main room and peered out.
    Riley’s dark russet head lifted from a book. So, she was not entirely abandoned.  The fairy doctor was here to make sure she didn’t slip into hysterics. Her brother's face was solemn. Riley resembled her, although his hair tended toward brown with a deep reddish cast while Tara's hair was a true copper.