Willow: A Novel (No Series) by Linda Lael Miller

repeated, as though Willow had made a joke.
    “Maria, Gideon doesn’t love me—he told me so himself.Suppose he turns out to be a drunkard, or he beats me, or—”
    “Gideon will not beat you, though you will surely try his patience many times.” Maria seemed damnably certain of that, and Willow wondered why.
    Despondent, she sank down onto the edge of her bed. What was happening to her? She knew that Gideon intended to track down her brother, for heaven’s sake, and yet she would have gone with him willingly, glad to be his wife, if only he’d said he loved her.
    Maria paused to place a gentle hand beneath Willow’s chin. “Little one, do not fear. He does love you, your Gideon.”
    “He came right out and said he didn’t!”
    “Then he lies or, perhaps, he has not yet recognized his feelings for what they are. Chiquita , the señor burns for you. This is in his eyes. In his breath. In the way his hands want to reach for you, and he must still them.”
    “That’s only lust!” Willow protested vehemently.
    But Maria would make no further comment. She went placidly back to the packing, and when it was finished, she left Willow to her musings to go and make sure Pablito had gone on his errand, then to sit with Evadne until the doctor arrived.
    Willow was bending out of her window, trying to decide whether she could jump and escape to freedom without breaking one or both legs, when the door of her bedroom opened behind her. She whirled, expecting to see Gideon standing there.
    Instead, she was confronted with a wild-eyed,distraught-looking Evadne. Her dark hair, always elegantly coiffed, tumbled down over her shoulders, reaching past her waist.
    “What did you do to entice my son?” the woman demanded, in strange, slurred tones.
    For a moment, Willow was too taken aback to speak. Had Evadne—proper and temperate Evadne—been partaking of spirits? “Entice your son? Evadne, I didn’t—”
    “You’re exactly like your mother!” Evadne broke in, and her voice was shrill now. She trembled with indignation. “Leaving one man, taking up with another, doing whatever you want, no matter who gets hurt! Well, I won’t let you poison Gideon’s life the way Chastity did Devlin’s. Do you hear me, Willow? I will not permit you to spoil his chance to be happy with a suitable woman! ”
    A suitable woman.
    Evadne was referring, of course, to Daphne Roberts.
    What made Daphne “suitable,” Willow wondered, unexpectedly injured, and why wasn’t she suitable, too?
    A thousand protests leaped into Willow’s mind, but she did not give voice to any of them. It was Evadne who had been poisoned, with hatred and with bitterness, but trying to reason with her now would be useless.
    “I’m sorry you feel that way,” Willow said finally, as compassion swept through her. “The truth is that I love Gideon very much.”
    “Love him?” scoffed Evadne. “No one in this misguided family has any conception of the meaning of that word!”
    Willow blinked back tears. “My father loves you, Evadne.”
    Evadne fell against the doorjamb, and the dearth of color in her face was frightening. “Does he? Does he, Willow? They why, pray tell, does he spend every free moment with that Triskadden woman?”
    Sympathy for her stepmother swept over Willow in a crushing wave; she went to Evadne, took her arm, guided her to a chair. “Please. You mustn’t upset yourself so—you don’t look well—”
    “Don’t touch me!” Evadne shrieked.
    “What is wrong?” Maria queried anxiously, from the open doorway.
    Willow looked at the housekeeper in relief and pleaded, “Maria, has the doctor arrived? Mrs. Gallagher is not well.”
    “I am not ill!” screamed Evadne, flinging away the hand that Maria extended to her.
    Over Evadne’s head, Maria’s worried brown eyes met Willow’s gaze. “The señora needs to rest. Help me take her back to her room, chiquita . The doctor is on his way.”
    Surprisingly, Evadne allowed herself to