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Why did she want it now?

"Running away never acco" Meredith looked up fro her"I didn’t run away He did"

"Did he?" Aunt Eleanor asked archly, lips puckered "So you told him you’re in love with him, then?"

Since when did her aunt insist on honesty?

"Of course not," Meredith snapped "Why should I? I’h to confess that to hih

"Youaway in the literal sense--

which Nick has done And there’s running away emotionally--which you have done, which you always do"

"Posh," Meredith snorted, eyeing the tiny row of roses she had fashioned Her tre hands did not bode well for her stitches She found herself wishing, not for the first ti home the moment she heard Meredith was at Oak Run Or more accurately, the moment her aunt heard she was at Oak Run alone Husbandless

Again Her life was h without her aunt’s keen and somewhat ruthless observations

Aunt Eleanor resu here when he is in London?"

A smile twitched Meredith’s lips The first in days She couldn’t help herself "We?"

She had found little to se, the one place where she felt secure, where the earth did not constantly shift beneath her feet--no longer filled the gap in her life As long as he was gone, nothing could ever do that again

Her aunt’s next words chased the smile from her face

"Seems like you’ve let another husband cast you aside to rot in the country" She shook her head and clucked her tongue in disapproval "I just never ie would turn out like the last one"

Meredith felt the blood drain from her face

Her aunt took one look at her and rushed to apologize "Dearest, I’m sorry That was dreadfully insensitive"

"No You are quite right," sheher head froy "I--"

Meredith swiped a hand through the air, silencing her Aunt Eleanor closed herher needlework, Meredith rose to her feet, looking out the French doors in er eon of compassion for her deceased husband The burden of a secret life could not have made for a happy existence

But Nick?

No one pressured him to marry her

He was a man with healthy sexual appetites for the opposite sex Appetites that he had seemed happy to lavish on her So as the problem? Why wasn’t he here? With her?

She possessed toofor his love After all, he abandoned her If he felt so beyond lust, then pride deers over herout theas a firrew inside her

But he would not coain on the ht hilected ould once again be her lot Her heart clenched

Only this ti, because she loved the husband in question

"I know," Aunt Eleanor exclainancy, only this ti to her stomach "Absolutely not I won’t lie to Nick about that" It was too soon to tell, but her aunt’s suggestion hted her, Meredith vowed that if it were true, she would not use their child to hold hi?" Aunt Eleanor asked, studying her face closely

She scarcely paid attention to her aunt’s question, too busy conte Nick to her If she could only see hinize all that they could have together, all that they could be What could pro and--

Seized with inspiration, she ceased tapping her lips and latched onto a single word

Proud

Nick was a proud man At times insufferably so

"Meredith?" her aunt called out as she rushed across the roo?"

"To pay a call"