"Nora Roberts - [O'hurleys 01] - The Last Honest Woman [TXT]" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts Nora)

There would be no fast ride here, where the snow and mud had mixed
itself into a slushy mire. The air was cold and heavy with damp, but she
felt a sense of anticipation. Things were changing, and wasn't that all
anyone could ask? They kept to a fast walk, with both of them straining
for what always seemed just out of reach. Freedom.

Perhaps agreeing to be interviewed for this book would bring some
portion of it. She could only hope. But the doubts she'd lived with ever
since the arrangements had been made still hovered. What was right, what
was wrong, what were the consequences? She'd have to assume the
responsibility, no matter what occurred.

She rode over the land she loved yet never quite considered her own.

The snow was melting in the pasture. In another month, she thought, the
foals could play on the new grass. She'd plant hay and oats, and this
year--maybe this year--her books would inch over into the black.

Chuck would never have worried. He'd never thought about tomorrow, only
about the next moment. The next car race. She knew why he'd bought the
land in rural Virginia. Perhaps she'd always known. But at the time
she'd been able to take his gesture of guilt as a gesture of hope. Her
ability to find and hold on to thin threads of hope had gotten her
through the last eight years.

Chuck had bought the land, then had spent only a few scattered weeks on
it. He'd been too restless to sit and watch the grass grow. Restless,
careless and selfish, that was Chuck. She'd known that before she'd
married him. Perhaps that was why she'd married him. She couldn't claim
he'd ever pretended to be anything else. It was simply that she'd looked
and seen what she'd wanted to see. He'd swept into her life like the
comet he was and, blinded with fascination, she'd followed.

The eighteen-year-old Abigail O'Hurley had been stunned and thrilled at
being romanced by the dramatic Chuck Rockwell. His name had been
front-page news as he'd raced his way through the Grand Prix circuit.
His name had been in bold type on the scandal sheets as he'd raced his
way through the hearts of women. The young Abigail hadn't read the
tabloids.

He'd spun her into his life in Miami, charmed and dazzled her. He'd
offered excitement. Excitement and a freedom from responsibilities.
She'd been married before she'd been able to catch her breath.

Though a light drizzle was falling now, Abby stopped her horse. She
didn't mind the rain that dampened her face and jacket. It added another
quality she'd needed that morning. Isolation. A coward's way, she knew,
but she'd never thought herself brave. What she had done--what she would
continue to do--was survive.