About a Vampire

Текст добавлен: 7 октября 2016, 01:46

Текст книги "About a Vampire"

Автор книги: Lynsay Sands

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Любовно-фантастические романы

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Текущая страница: 20 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

“Aric. Friend. Do not allow Delia’s behavior to color your views. She was raised by her uncle, Lord Stratham, the most notorious reprobate in the land.”

“Yet my mother was not.”

“Ah.” Robert sighed.

“She was raised most strictly.”

“Yes, but—”

“And she could not contain her passions.”

Robert shook his head. “I can see you will not be easily reassured, but ’tis not as bad as all that. If you fear she will become overfond of the company of men, you merely have to keep her away from court. Keep her in the country, where the only men she may meet are peasants and serfs. Surely she was brought up with enough sense not to dally with one of them.” He clapped his friend on the back encouragingly.

“Oh, aye. The king would most likely be very pleased should he never see his daughter again,” Aric muttered. Robert frowned.

“Oh, there is that. He will most likely wish her at court on occasion.”

“Most likely,” Aric agreed dryly.

“He appears to hold great affection for her.” Robert’s frown deepened as he thought on that. “That could be a problem, could it not? Jesu! A king for a father-in-law,” he marveled in horror as he realized the full significance of it. “Should you not make her happy, he might have you drawn and quartered. What a spot to be in!”

“Robert.”

“Aye?”

“Stop trying to make me feel better.”

Rosamunde’s fretting ended abruptly at the opening of the door. Sighing, she pushed herself to a sitting position as Sister Eustice reentered with the gown she had fetched lying carefully over her arm.

“The creases are all gone, fortunately enough,” the nun informed her and started to push the cell door closed, but paused when the abbess’s voice sounded in the hallway. By the time Adela arrived at the door, both Rosamunde and Eustice were waiting curiously. Adela took one look at Rosamunde’s expression and hurried forward.

“Oh, my dear child,” she murmured soothingly, seating herself on the cot beside the girl. She embraced her briefly. “All will be well. You will see. God has a special path for you to follow and you must trust in him.”

“Aye, ’tis what Sister Eustice said,” Rosamunde whispered as tears welled in her eyes. Oddly enough, the small droplets of liquid had not threatened until the very moment that the abbess offered comfort. It had always been that way. While both Eustice and the abbess had taken the place of her mother on that beautiful woman’s death, it was the abbess to whom Rosamunde had turned to bandage her banged-up knees and soothe her hurts. And it never failed that Rosamunde could stand absolutely anything with a stiff upper lip and grim smile until the abbess came around; at the first sight of Adela’s kind face, though, she always broke down.

“Oh, now. Shh, my child. Do not cry. You must have faith in the Lord. He chose this path for you. Surely there is a reason.”

“I am not crying out of fear of what is to come. Well . . .” she corrected honestly, “mostly I am not. Mostly I am crying for what is ending.”

Bewildered, the abbess shook her head slightly. “What is ending?”

“I will have to leave you all, the only family I have ever known. Aside from my father,” she added loyally.

Eustice and Adela shared a dismayed look, their own eyes filling with tears at the realization. They had been too distracted to consider that truth.

“Well . . .” Sister Eustice glanced desperately around, everywhere but at the young woman who had been her student in the stables since being a small child—young Rosamunde had latched onto Eustice’s voluminous skirts and trailed after her the moment she had gained her feet and been able to walk. The nun had taught her everything she knew, and the look on Eustice’s face conveyed her misery at their separation.

“Aye,” Adela murmured unhappily, her own watery gaze on the floor. She had been taken with Rosamunde from her birth. The baby’s red curls and sweet smile had melted her heart as nothing else ever had. Contrary to tradition, she herself had overseen the girl’s lessons in the schoolroom. She had spent hour after hour feeding the child’s expanding mind, encouraging patience, and curbing the temper that seemed always to come with redheads. The rewards for her effort had been great. Rosamunde was everything she had ever wanted in a daughter. With a grimace of pain, the abbess rose to her feet.

“Every bird must leave the nest one day,” she said practically. She moved to the door, only to pause and glance back uncertainly. “I never thought you would leave us, Rosamunde. I was not warned.” Adela sighed unhappily. “Thinking you would not need the knowledge, there was much I neglected to teach you about marriage and the marital bed.”

“The marital bed?” Rosamunde frowned worriedly as she noted the sudden stain of embarrassment on the older woman’s cheeks.

The abbess stared at her, at a loss for a moment, then turned abruptly away. “Sister Eustice shall enlighten you,” she said abruptly. She started to slip out of the room, then paused to add, “But quickly, sister. The king is most impatient to have this business done.”

The door closed, leaving Eustice staring at it in stupefaction.

About the Author

LYNSAY SANDS is the nationally bestselling author of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter vampire series, as well as numerous historicals and anthologies. She’s been writing since grade school and considers herself incredibly lucky to be able to make a career out of it. Her hope is that readers can get away from their everyday stress through her stories, and if there are occasional uncontrollable fits of laughter, that’s just a big bonus.

Please visit her on the web at www.lynsaysands.net.

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By Lynsay Sands

ABOUT A VAMPIRE

THE IMMORTAL WHO LOVED ME

VAMPIRE MOST WANTED

ONE LUCKY VAMPIRE

IMMORTAL EVER AFTER

THE LADY IS A VAMP

UNDER A VAMPIRE MOON

THE RELUCTANT VAMPIRE

HUNGRY FOR YOU

BORN TO BITE

THE RENEGADE HUNTER

THE IMMORTAL HUNTER

THE ROGUE HUNTER

VAMPIRE, INTERRUPTED

VAMPIRES ARE FOREVER

THE ACCIDENTAL VAMPIRE

BITE ME IF YOU CAN

A BITE TO REMEMBER

A QUICK BITE

TALL, DARK & HUNGRY

SINGLE WHITE VAMPIRE

LOVE BITES

THE HIGHLANDER TAKES A BRIDE

TO MARRY A SCOTTISH LAIRD

AN ENGLISH BRIDE IN SCOTLAND

THE HUSBAND HUNT

THE HEIRESS

THE COUNTESS

THE HELLION AND THE HIGHLANDER

TAMING THE HIGHLAND BRIDE

DEVIL OF THE HIGHLANDS

THE LOVING DAYLIGHTS

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ABOUT A VAMPIRE. Copyright © 2015 by Lynsay Sands. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition OCTOBER 2015 ISBN: 9780062316035

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062316028

FIRST EDITION

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