At Long Last
Chapter One
"You did what?" exclaimed Arabella Montgomery, her voice a mixture
of horror and incredulity.
Across the brief distance that separated them, her younger half
brother Jeremy would not meet her eyes as he muttered, "I gambled
away the plantation. Everything. We have nothing left."
As Arabella stared at him transfixed, he sank down into a chair near
her desk and buried his blond head in his hands. "Dear God, Bella,
we are ruined! What am I to do?"
Telling herself not to let blind panic seep in, Arabella took a deep
breath. This particularly lovely April morning, she had been seated
behind the desk in the small room she used as an office, humming
happily to herself and looking for a recipe for making rose water.
The mundane tranquillity shattered by Jeremy's announcement, she
carefully laid aside the scrap of paper she held in her hand, and in
a surprisingly calm voice said, "Tell me what happened."
"I don't really know," Jeremy replied despairingly.
"I was too drunk."
With an effort Arabella bit back the angry recriminations that
sprang to her tongue. Now, she reminded herself gr ... read full excerpt from: At Long Last ebook
