by Glint, Chloe
"Indeed." Her father nodded. "Perhaps she is trying to hide it from you or hasn't realized the problem herself yet. There are whispers around town that she is a tease that will never marry. Men have stopped coming to call. People no longer invite her to balls. Other girls avoid her if they can. It doesn't help that her friends are all married and don't want their husband's tempted by her flirtatiousness."
Her stomach sunk. She knew her father was going to ask her for something. She saw it in his wide, desperate eyes.
"Whatever it is you want from me, ask." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm tired of your games. I am a grown woman now with a husband."
"I know." Her father paused. "I suspect you will have to talk this over with Kale. I was hoping you and your husband would allow Gabrielle to stay with you for some time. If she sees how happy married life is, she may settle down and rid herself of the bad reputation she has gained."
She grew silent. Gabrielle, living with them? For a fleeting moment her heart roared with fear. If Kale's attraction for her sister was suddenly rekindled…She shook her head to clear it. She was being foolish. Her husband had proved that he would be true to her no matter what. As for her sister, she would be no threat to her marriage.
"After what I did, I know I am asking a great deal of you," her father whispered. "It's just I don't know what to do. If this continues, I'm afraid I will have to send Gabrielle to a nunnery."
Her blood pulsed. Her sister would do as well in a nunnery as a cat would in the sea. Her sense of humor was inappropriate despite her noble blood, and she was not very religious. The girl would die from her own unhappiness or be forced to run away and live her life in poverty. The idea of her sister facing such an ordeal made her ill.
"I do need to discuss this with my husband," she said. "But a nunnery, Father? God has not called her to such a fate. She is good for many things, but not for devout worship."
"I know." Her father sighed. "It's your mother's idea. Sending her home with you was mine. Please, do your best to convince Kale to allow your sister to stay."
Camille nodded. She would not only convince Kale to allow Gabrielle to stay with them, but she'd do her best to find the girl a proper husband as well.
****
Kale was awake and standing in the corner peering out the window when Camille came into the room. He was glad to see her. Normally, he rolled over in bed and saw her face during his first moments awake. This morning, though, she had been gone. Beaming, he walked over to his wife and kissed her. She kissed him back, but her thoughts were obviously elsewhere. Her lips held the passion of a dead fish. He pulled away and raised an eyebrow.
"Adoring this morning, are we?" Kale said. "I love how you were looking at the wall when I kissed you."
"I'm sorry, Husband." She sighed. "I just had an awful discussion with my father."
Kale stiffened. Discussions with fathers were hardly a good thing. "What did he say? Was it about us? Was he displeased by something?"
"No, nothing of the sort." She sat on the bed and groaned. "My father does have his heart in the right place, even if he did betrayed me. This was about Gabrielle."
"Gabrielle?" Kale sat down next to her on the bed. "What's wrong with her? She seemed happy enough last night over tea."
"The girl is prone to teasing men, as you saw. She must have teased the wrong one because she has gotten a nasty reputation around town and has become a social pariah." She squeezed her eyes shut. "My mother wants to send her to a nunnery."
Her gasped. "Gabrielle? In a nunnery? That doesn't strike me as befitting. You said yourself she doesn't even like Sunday mass. Why don't they just try to arrange a marriage for her?"
"They were trying to do that even while I lived with them." She paused. "My sister is stubborn. She refuses to follow the advice of my parents simply because they said it. That's why…"
"Oh, no." Kale buried his face in his hands. "I hate it when you begin a sentence but don't finish it. It means you are going to say something I don't like."
Her lips pursed. "That is why my father asked me to find her a proper husband. She'll listen to me. The two of us have always been close."
"How do they expect you to find her a proper husband if you're so far away?" Kale paused, his face growing cold. "Oh."
"They want Gabrielle to come with us," Camille admitted. "Just for a short amount of time. If she doesn't find a husband, then she will get sent back here and will be forced into a nunnery."
For a moment he didn't speak. He wondered whether Gabrielle would affect their marriage. Though he held no feelings for the blonde girl, he worried his wife might become self-conscious again. Yet he could tell how much Camille really wanted to help her sibling because of the light in her eyes. He couldn't deny his wife what she wanted so badly. He reached out and placed his hand on her arm.
"You truly wish to help your sister, don't you?" Kale asked.
Her heart leapt and she looked up. "Very much. I don't want her to be condemned to misery."
"If you want to help her, then she may come with us." Her husband sighed.
"Oh." She flew into his arms and showered his lips with kisses. "Thank you, Kale! Thank you!"
He laughed and wrapped his arms around her waist. "That's the passion I was looking for when you came into the room."
"I promise you that nothing will go wrong," Camille said.
I hope that's true, Kale thought, as his wife pecked his lips one last time.
Gabrielle's love story begins in book two of the Unsuitable Series
An Unsuitable Circumstance