by Laura Landon
“The twins told me you’ve learned to play croquet,” her father said when they reached the far side of the dais. It was time to announce Harrison’s engagement. “They said you are nearly as accomplished as Harrison.” Her father laughed. “Remind me to challenge you next time we’re at The Down.”
“Father—”
Her father lifted his finger to halt her words and walked with her to the corner where they were hidden from full view of the guests. He let her steady herself with her cane, then stood in font of her. He crossed his hands over his chest and leveled her with a most regal look. “How much do you love Lord Charfield?”
She lowered her gaze and looked to a spot on the floor to her right.
“I asked you a question, Elyssa. Is refusing his offer worth the pain and loneliness you will both suffer for the rest of your lives?”
Elly shook her head. “What if I become such an embarrassment that Brent eventually hates me?”
“Oh, Elyssa. The person you’ve always been wouldn’t even have entertained that thought. She would have grabbed hold of the gift Charfield offered her with both hands and lived life to the fullest. She would have done everything in her power to make the man she loved the happiest man alive. Instead of running from the challenges he placed in front of her, she would have embraced them and issued challenges of her own.”
Her father placed a finger beneath her chin and tipped her head back so she had to look into his eyes. “You’ve always been someone I’ve been proud to call my daughter. What you thought of as embarrassing clumsiness was only that in your eyes. Never in your mother’s eyes. Never in mine. Never in the eyes of anyone who loved you.”
Elly swallowed hard. “Oh, Papa. What am I to do?”
“Whatever you can live with, Elly.”
Chapter 28
Brent stood at the side of the ballroom nursing the drink a footman had offered him. This wasn’t the time to drink himself senseless. That would come later. When Elly walked out of his life forever.
He watched her family gather on the opposite side of the room. Elly stood beside her father, no doubt explaining that Brent had embarrassed her once too often. That she didn’t trust him enough to believe he could love her.
Then her father placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned in to say something. She turned her head, her eyes finding him in the crowded room. She shook her head, then stepped into her father’s arms.
His broken heart lay shattered at his feet. It was all he could do to remain until Harrison’s engagement was announced.
If it weren’t for the fact that this was the last time he’d see Elly, he’d leave. But he couldn’t force himself to give up even one minute of this last night with her.
He focused his gaze to where she stood on the dais at the opposite end of the ballroom. The Duke and Duchess of Sheridan took center stage with their children and their fiancées and husbands surrounding them. The Marquess of Fellingsdown stood to the right of the stage with his future bride, Lady Lathamton, at his side.
But none of Elly’s siblings or their partners held his attention. Only Elly.
She’d never looked as beautiful as she did tonight.
She wore a dark green gown that accented her mahogany hair. The strings of tiny pearls wound through her silken tresses made him want to gather her curls in his hand and hold them.
She leaned on her cane like she always did, but it was such a part of her she wouldn’t look natural without it.
She wouldn’t be his Elly.
Her gaze hadn’t found him once since she’d taken her place on the platform, but he hadn’t expected her to look at him. She’d made her feelings known when she’d left on her father’s arm.
He knew then that she’d made her choice.
Now if he could live with her decision.
The ache inside his chest made him doubt he could. Perhaps in ten years or twenty the discomfort wouldn’t be so bad. But that was unlikely. What he feared most was that the hurt would grow stronger. He wasn’t sure he was courageous enough to live with that much pain.
He sucked in a deep breath and held it.
The Duke of Sheridan stepped to the front of the platform. In a moment he would announce the betrothal of his son, then everyone would gather to congratulate the happy couple. There would be no reason for Elly to stay longer. No reason for him to stay either.
He braced his shoulders and pretended to be as happy as the rest of the guests in the room.
The Duke of Sheridan took his place. “Welcome, friends.” He held up his hands to quiet the crowd. “Thank you for attending this most special night.”
There was a robust round of applause.
“It’s not often parents get to see their family nearly double in a matter of a few short months like Her Grace and I have.”
A chorus of laughter as well as a spattering of applause echoed from the ballroom and the duke tucked his wife’s hand in his.
“Tonight, though, is a most extraordinary culmination to what has, without a doubt, been the most exciting round of events anyone could imagine.”
There was another round of applause.
“All of you think you know why you were invited. And you’re correct.”
The crowd cheered.
“But that announcement is only part of the reason we are celebrating. I have another disclosure to make that is equally, if not even more exciting.”
A hush fell over the crowd and everyone seemed to move closer to the dais to make sure they caught the duke’s surprising announcement.
“Before I divulge this special secret, let me preface my announcement by making a statement only one of you in this room will understand.”
The duke paused, then turned his gaze to where Brent stood.
Brent’s heart raced.
“The answer,” he said, prolonging the rest of his sentence an agonizingly long length of time, “is...yes.”
Brent’s heart skipped one beat, then a second. His gaze darted to Elly and his heart threatened to burst. There was a smile on her face as well as an unmistakable look of love and affection.
It took him a moment to move. Then, on legs that trembled beneath him, he made his way through the crowd toward the dais.
When Brent reached the platform, the duke continued.
“It’s not every father and mother who have the honor of announcing the betrothal of not one, but two of their children the same evening. The duchess and I have been given that honor.”
The duke stopped and Brent was glad he waited until the crowd realized what his presence on the dais meant.
“It gives me the greatest pleasure to announce the engagement of my daughter, Lady Elyssa, to Brentan Montgomery, Earl of Charfield. And my son, Harrison Prescott, Marquess of Fellingsdown, to Lady Lathamton.”
Squeals of shock and a rousing applause followed the announcement, but he didn’t pay any attention to it. He was too focused on holding Elly in his arms and kissing her.
“You’ll never be sorry, Elly,” he said over the shouts of well-wishers and the thunderous applause that seemed to grow louder with each passing second.
“How could I be?” She touched his cheek with the fingers of one hand and wrapped the other arm around his neck. “I have your love.”
Brent gathered her into his arms. He wasn’t sure where her cane was, but it no longer mattered.
From now on, she had him to lean on.
Dedication
For my dear friend Mary Schwaner
because without her help, none of this would be possible.
___
Also by Laura Landon
MORE THAN WILLING
SHATTERED DREAMS
WHEN LOVE IS ENOUGH
and coming July 2011
WHERE LOYALTY LIES
___
WHEN LOVE IS ENOUGH
by Laura Landon
Gabriel Talbot loved her. Liddy knew it. Felt it. Owned the deep and tender knowledge of it, so much so that in G
abe’s arms, she knew her heart was safe. Lydia Landwell loved him. Gabriel saw it in her eyes. Felt it in every tender word. Theirs was a love that few couples could boast, and they knew it, cherished that knowledge in their hearts until the day Gabriel might announce his intentions to her father.
But before the words could be spoken, before the hearts could be united, Gabe broke Liddy’s heart and walked away. She could never know that if he stayed, if he forced her father to give him Liddy’s hand in marriage, a cruel vendetta would leave her father and brothers penniless.
To save their fortune, he broke her heart, and took his own shattered heart off to the Crimea, until, half dead, he made it home to the only woman who can heal him. But how can she save him when she is now pledged to a man he admires more than any other?
Read WHEN LOVE IS ENOUGH and see how author LAURA LANDON manages to tear down the barriers of pain and mistrust...as two broken hearts learn the only lesson they will ever need to know. That love is enough.
___
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.
SHATTERED DREAMS
Copyright © 2010 by Laura Landon
First digital edition
ISBN 978-0-9830741-2-0
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used in the context of another work of fiction without written permission of the author or Prairie Muse Publishing.
Contact [email protected]
Cover art by Prairie Muse
www.prairiemuse.com
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
