Read Online Baroness by Susan May Warren - Free Book Online

reached the street, her eyes were blurry, burning. She strode out of the station, crossed the street, and found a bench.
    She sat until she stopped shaking, watching travelers arrive, luggage in tow, watching carriages and footmen unloading crates, pigeons fighting the squirrels for sunflower seeds.
    Lilly did this. Lilly and her whining. Lilly and her foolishness. She’d shown up in New York City and invaded Rosie’s life.
    Rosie had taught her how to dress, to act, to talk, and introduced her to her friends. And Lilly repaid her by going flying. Flying.
    She could have been killed, and who would have borne the blame?
    Rosie got up, walked over to a flower vendor, and purchased a bouquet of lilacs, breathing them in.
    Lilly was a chain around Rosie’s neck, suffocating, pulling her under.
    It was time to cut the chain and let her drown.
    * * * * *
    â€œRosie hasn’t spoken to you for five days?”
    Lilly tried to place the name of the redhead who’d posed the question—she’d met so many people in the past week, she struggled to keep them all straight.
    Darby she remembered, because of his soldier’s uniform. Irish and tall, he had flown with Rennie and now worked at the embassy. She liked his brogue and well-bred manners, unlike Rennie’s pal Hem, who’d shown up last night with his pregnant wife. Hem knew Darby, and all three soldiers shared a darkness they refused to discuss. Brooding and dark, Hem drank too much and had danced most of the night with a coquette girl who sported some fancy title. Baroness Raymonde, or something. Rennie called her Ray and teased her enough that Lilly had to work to laugh at her jokes.
    There were others—Scott and his drunken, pretty wife, who cursed like men in a shipping yard and had nearly embroiled her husband in a fight over her honor, and two women who dressed in trousers, suspenders, and white oxford blouses and danced together, their derbies cockeyed upon their bobs.
    As for the redhead…Paige, maybe? She couldn’t remember her name, but clearly she had an interest in Lilly and her moaning about Rosie and the fact that since she’d left her handprint on Lilly’s check, Rosie had behaved as if she didn’t exist. Shopping, lunching, even dining out and clubbing with Blanche and Pembrook without even a fare-thee-well to Lilly.
    Although, for her part, Lilly hadn’t exactly followed her cousin down the hall to make amends. Not after her first attempt ended with the door in her face.
    How was she supposed to chaperone a cousin who loathed her?
    â€œShe’s angry with me.”
    â€œWhy?” the redhead asked. Yes, it must be Paige. Or Patty?
    â€œBecause she doesn’t need her anymore, Presley.” Rennie slid onto the chair next to Lilly, set his arm around her shoulders. “Because Lilly has discovered Paris on her own.” He picked up her glass and winked at Lilly.
    Oh, she wanted Rennie to kiss her. Every day, he seemed to nudge his way deeper inside her soul, until it felt as if he belonged there. She had lingered last night as he’d let her off by her door, caught in his smile, hoping he might sense her acquiescence. But Rennie was a gentleman, all the way through to his core, and although he’d taken her out every night and taught her to dance, he hadn’t once pushed for more.
    Maybe tonight. She’d silently begun to thank Rosie for her efforts to attire her in the latest fashions as she’d picked out a sleeveless sequined tunic dress with large orange and red poppies, and a matching headband that, admittedly, Lilly never dreamed she’d wear. She had also forgone the braids and twisted her hair into a knot at the back of her head, amazed at how thin it made her neck appear.
    But this week had been one of new discoveries, each moment igniting inside her something new. New laughter, new passions, new daring pursuits. Something about being away from New York, eyes