Knight’s Bride by Juliette Caruso EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author: Juliette Caruso
- Language: English
- Genre: Romantic Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
The Hulder Wood
The day that Rachiele of Jet Isle realized she was doomed, it was
unseasonably warm. Or perhaps she had simply forgotten the lowland
cradle’s weather after eight years holed up in a mountain convent.
June’s heat turned the carriage, with its thick cushioning and metal
trappings, into a torture device. Her sweat-damped gown crumpled against
the plush bench. She rested her head against the wall and stared blankly at
the blur of trees through the very small window. They were nearly there,
which at least meant she could leave the stifling carriage soon; the air thick
with her aunt’s and her mother’s perfumes and her father’s sweat and her
baby brother’s… well, best not think about that smell’s source.
“Half a year of planning, and now the timber won’t be shipped ‘til fall?
Hah,” her father spat. She could hear the Jet Isle accent on his lips; the
accent she’d been accused of having when she first arrived across the
continent at Beinloc. She wondered if she still sounded like that, or if all the
years at her convent school had scrubbed it from her voice.
“Just tell him he won’t get any shipments until…” her aunt began to
suggest, her cadence just as lilting.
“It’s all in the damned betrothal contract,” Lord Geragio of Jet Isle
snapped back. “July the first on our end, and ‘after logging’ on his–that
weasel.”
“Well, surely he can be reasoned with.” Her mother Donatina’s voice was
as soft and calming as one attempting to gentle a spooked horse. But her
father only scoffed.
“That’s not how business works,” Lord Geragio told her scornfully.
No, Rachiele thought again: she had been utterly wrong to look forward
to this. She should not have been in a hurry to leave Beinloc, where even if
it was furiously dull, women at least had a voice. Now she was reduced to
partial-payment on a trade deal. No doubt the groom had been chosen
without any consideration of her wishes. No doubt he was an ogre, or a
hundred years old to her eighteen, or overly fond of drink. No doubt she’d
never have the love-match she dreamed of.
Without warning the carriage slammed perilously to the right and ground
to a halt.
Rachiele gasped as she crashed into the wall. The carriage hung at an
unnatural angle, the seats and walls all slanted. Her mother, sliding as
Rachiele had, flattened against her. Baby Elazar screamed at the top of his
tiny lungs right into Rachiele’s ear. Rachiele’s heart pounded out of her
chest.
Lord Geragio’s face went red as he stuck his arms out for purchase,
accidentally smacking Aunt Minna in the face. Outside, the horses
whinnied and the servants erupted in chatter. She didn’t miss the single peal
of laughter that was quickly stifled.
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