Read "A Life for a Love" by L.T. Meade online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Valentine had got a blow. The first real great blow which had ever been dealt to her. It had a most curious effect. Instead of stunning or rendering her weak and incapable, it suddenly changed her from a child into a practical and clever and wide-awake woman. The very quality of her voice changed. It became full, and inspired respect the moment she spoke. She was quite aware that her father had deceived her, that he did not mean her to accompany Gerald to Sydney.
She said nothing about this knowledge -- not even that evening when she got home and found her father looking ten years older, but standing on the step of her own little home waiting for her.