Read Online The Unclaimed Duchess by Jenna Petersen - Free Book Online Page A

Anne had made do on her own.
    The softer style suited her, for she looked more beautiful than he had ever seen her. Oh, she had always been beautiful, but now Rhys saw her… truly saw her, and realized it was perhaps for the first time. Anne had never been anything to him but an accessory to his future. At times she had been a distraction, but he had managed to squelch those feelings when they made themselves known.
    This afternoon there would be none of that. Now he couldn’t help but see the softness in her eyes, a kindness and a gentleness that had always made her so well-liked by the ton at large.
    Yet beyond that, there was also strength, something deeper than most possessed. After all, Anne had come here after him, faced off with him, andnever once backed down, even when he hurt her and probably frightened her. She had even been willing to save his very life when she believed he was about to throw himself off the cliffs in desperation.
    And then there was the passion. The dark green-blue of her stare had always been pretty enough, but Rhys had never recognized one key aspect that Anne held there. Passion.
    She might not show it in ballrooms, she might not know or fully understand it, but when she had come screaming down the hill to save him, when she had reeled back and slapped him after he hurt her, when he had kissed her in the cottage, and above all when she had confessed her love for him…Rhys had felt Anne’s deep and abiding passion. All these years he had judged her as the kind of woman who didn’t allow deep feelings to trouble her. But instead she had merely been masking them.
    He understood something about that. And now, as he stood looking at her on the sandy beach, he wondered how he had been so blind as to not see these things in all the years they had spent betrothed.
    â€œR-Rhys?” she whispered.
    He blinked, shoving away his thoughts. “Hello,” he finally responded. “I thought you might have gone, after all.”
    She shrugged one shoulder, but he could see she wasbiting her tongue to keep herself from arguing about her departure once more. Instead she said, “When I came out of the cottage, I noticed the driver had left my bag when he departed. I hadn’t even noticed.”
    Rhys blinked. Normally he was observant, but he hadn’t noticed, either, so distracted had he been by both arguing with and desiring Anne.
    â€œAt any rate, I took it in and unpacked it.”
    He stared. “Yourself?”
    Her gaze settled firmly on his. “Yes, Rhys. I’m not so incapable that I couldn’t put a few things into a drawer. But when you didn’t return by the time I had finished, I thought to look for you.”
    He nodded, awkward and unable to think of a good answer now that he was standing here with her, this woman who loved him. He hadn’t even known that, so he wondered what other things she had kept to herself over the years. Did he know Anne at all?
    She paced past him to the edge of the water. Lifting her skirt just a fraction, she allowed a wave to splash over her bare feet. Rhys swallowed at the glimpse of her bare toes, her ankle, a little calf.
    â€œIt’s beautiful here,” Anne finally said after it seemed like the uncomfortable silence would last a lifetime.
    He nodded. That , at least, was a subject he could address.
    â€œMy mother used to bring us here every summer for a week. She said every child, no matter their rank, deserved to run free for a little while.”
    He shut his eyes. He could so clearly picture his normally staid mother running down the shore, laughing and playing with him and his sisters.
    But now his image of her was tainted. Had she run wild here? Was this where he had been conceived, or some other place where she went to escape her husband? And had she had a tryst only with Simon’s father or were there other men?
    Great God, what her indiscretion had wrought. For him, but also for herself