Midnight Bayou
Chapter One
Manet Hall, Louisiana
December 30, 1899
The baby was crying. Abigail heard it in dreams, the soft, unsettled whimper, the stirring of tiny limbs under soft
blankets. She felt the first pangs of hunger, a yearning in the belly, almost as if the child were still inside her.
Her milk came down before she was fully awake.
She rose quickly and without fuss. It gave her such pleasure-that overfull sensation in her breasts, the tenderness of
them. The purpose of them. Her baby needed and she would provide.
She crossed to the recamier, lifted the white robe draped over its back. She drew in the scent of the hothouse
lilies-her favorite-spearing out of a crystal vase that had been a wedding present.
Before Lucian, she'd been content to tuck wildflowers into bottles.
If Lucian had been home, he would have woken as well. Though she would have smiled, have stroked a hand over his silky
blond hair as she told him to stay, to sleep, he would have wandered up to the nursery before she'd finished Marie
Rose's midnight feeding.
She missed him-another ache in the belly. But as she slipped into her night wrapper, ... read full excerpt from: Midnight Bayou ebook
