Page 75 of Enticing the Devil

Rising to her feet before he could start toward her, she met him near the front door.

There was no greeting, just a tense locking of eyes before Beynon cleared his throat. “The carriage is ready, if you’d—”

“I’m ready,” she noted. “We can go.”

Then she turned and strode across the gravel drive to the carriage, where their driver helped her into the well-sprung vehicle.

Beynon stepped in a moment later and their tense and silent journey continued.

Chapter Twenty-six

As they passed through the village where Beynon had lived for the first ten years of his life, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from watching Anne’s reactions. Covertly, of course. He couldn’t disrupt the carefully orchestrated distance he’d created between them over the last several days of travel. It was the only thing helping him to maintain his sanity and it was wearing frightfully thin.

After the wretched way he’d handled the special license followed by the rushed wedding, he’d vowed to give her all the space she needed to come to terms with the new life she’d been forced into. A vow that was proving far more difficult to keep than he could have anticipated when he wanted so badly to know what she was thinking and feeling with each minute that they grew closer to his home.

Though the village often triggered a wide range of emotions inside him, the place and its inhabitants were a part of his soul. They’d shaped him from very early on. Even after he’d gained the confidence and composure to walk down the main road without glaring defensively at anyone who looked at him, the people here remained a poignant part of his personal history.

Passing through the village also meant they were less than an hour from the farm.

With his stomach knotted, he observed his bride.

She sat with perfect posture despite the long days of travel. Since she had no maid, she’d been doing her pale hair in a simple style, parted in the center then twisted and pinned to the back of her head. She looked fresh and young and vibrant with understated elegance. Despite the occasional roughness of their accommodations—the quick meals and lumpy beds—and the constant, undeniable tension that filled the carriage throughout every day, she’d remained quietly enduring. Never once complaining or displaying discomfort.

She’d also never once asked why he insisted on getting them separate rooms each night and she’d never tried to force him into conversation during the day. She’d basically left him to brood in silence while she observed the passing scenery or napped or read from the slim novel she’d acquired at their second stop. The tense silence between them seemed perfectly to her liking.

And now, she stared attentively out the window, leaning forward on occasion to gaze at the mountains rising from the landscape. He noted how her gaze would follow the rugged rocky outcroppings with curiosity and perhaps a bit of wonder. Just outside the village, they began to pass the small farms that dotted the lower hills. Some had sheep, others had cows. The crop farms were becoming less and less common in the area, but there were a few remaining.

He watched how she seemed to soak in the sight of the stone cottages and the country laborers going about their late-afternoon tasks, finishing up their work before the sun would set on the day and they could settle in for the night, resting amongst family before starting all again at dawn.

He’d worked himself into a fine state of uncertainty by the time the carriage finally slowed to turn down the lane that would lead to his home, the farm left in his care after his stepfather’s passing. The house and land where he’d finally discovered his place and his purpose.

Though he hadn’t been in any hurry, he’d occasionally imagined the day he’d bring a bride home. He’d assumed it would be a local girl. A farmer’s daughter. A female already well versed in what would be required of her as Beynon’s life partner. He’d at least assumed there would be a sense of optimism as they started their lives together. A life he’d deeply wished to model after the example set by Cedric.

A life that would never be his.

Because he’d been unable to resist the subtle enticement of a woman possessing fairy-like grace that disguised a wealth of quiet passion within.

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