Scorned By Him, Cherished By His Brother novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Tonic
In the autumn, a letter came from the Sable Rocks.
It lay on the breakfast tray beside the marmalade, unsealed, in a hand I had seen on a hundred Treasury papers.
Henry read it standing, and his face did not change.
"Roland?" I said.
"He is still on the wall. He says the work is hard and the sea is cold, and that he has learned to lay stone." Henry turned the page. "He says he thinks of you every day, and that he is sorry."
"Is it a good letter?"
"It is short," said Henry. "That is the first good thing about it."
He set it down.
He did not tear it and he did not keep it.
He put it on the corner of the desk, under the inkwell, where he would find it in a year and read it again.
I was very large by then, and I sat at the table with my feet up on a stool and a cushion at my back.
The household had developed a habit of walking round me.
The footmen carried my chair, and Cook sent up broth I had not asked for, and the kitchen girl, who was sixteen, brought me a footwarmer every evening.
"I am not an invalid," I said.
"You are a lady about to have a baby," said the steward, with great dignity, "and the house has decided."
That evening, after supper, I went down to the little room by the herb garden.
The still room smelled of willow bark and ginger and cloves.
I measured and stirred, and when the tonic was ready, I poured it into a clean brown bottle.
I cut the thread, and tied it blue, with a double knot.
I wrote the label at the table by the lamp, in my plain hand, and it took me no time at all.
When I carried it up to the dining room, Henry was waiting.
Keep reading free with an account. Start Scorned By Him, Cherished By His Brother from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend