Read Online Dreamspinner by Olivia Drake - Free Book Online Page A

Kent stared straight ahead, brooding and silent. Despite the pleasant breeze and the mesmeric sway of the carriage, Juliet felt troubled, longing for a return of their easy companionship.
    “Why did you come to London?” At his sharp glance, she added hastily, “I don’t mean to pry. It’s just that I’ve never asked you before... I presume you’ve business here.”
    He returned his gaze to the road. “I needed to see a banker.”
    “Did it have to do with the threshing machine you’re developing?”
    He cast her another biting look. “Where did you hear about that?”
    She bit her lip. “Somewhere. I don’t recall.”
    “From Emmett, no doubt.”
    His frosty tone made her happiness wilt like the nosegay of wildflowers in her lap. Resentment suddenly stiffened her spine. “I wonder why you bother with me, then,” she snapped. “I’m a Carleton, too.”
    His hand descended over hers on the leather cushion. “Forgive me, Juliet. I had a lot of unhappy memories weighing on my mind. Can you spare me a little patience, please?”
    The contrition in his voice drew her gaze to his face, where concern gentled those sternly handsome angles. Her frustration eased, yet she couldn’t let go of her anger, not just yet.
    “I only want to make sure you’ve really set aside the feud.”
    “I have. It just takes some getting used to, that’s all.”
    Could she trust his word? She stole another glance and found him watching her. She could drown in the dark sea of his eyes. When he looked at her like that, she wanted to surrender herself into his keeping, to let him do with her whatever he willed.
    “All right,” she whispered, turning her hand so that her palm nestled within his. “I just wish... ”
    “Wish what?”
    How could she express the newborn needs and hopes and dreams trembling inside her heart? “I wish that everything could stay as perfect as it was earlier.”
    “I know.”
    A shared sensitivity shone on his face, and for one breathless moment she thought he meant to kiss her. Then he swung his pensive gaze back to the smartly trotting horse.
    “Unfortunately,” he said in a voice so low she had to strain to hear, “life is rarely perfect.”
     

     
    “Perfect... absolutely perfect,” Dorothea Carleton proclaimed. “Turn around now and let me see the back.”
    Juliet dutifully twirled before the cheval mirror in herbedroom. The jade hued gown sported a sash of black watered silk that cinched her tiny waist, and the low, square bodice of shirred gauze dramatized the fullness of her breasts. A modest cluster of green ribbons adorned one side of her chignon, and russet curls fringed her face. If only she were dressing to meet Kent...
    Rebellion stirred in her. “I wonder if Lord Breeton will judge me to be as superior as the horseflesh in his stable.”
    “Oh, darling,” Dorothea chided, “don’t be contrary. Someday you’ll realize the value of this extraordinary opportunity. Come now, we must hurry if we’re to be downstairs when he and his mother arrive.”
    Some thirty minutes later, Juliet selected a slice of saffron cake from a silver tray offered by a footman. Absently she listened to her father and Lord Breeton debate the merits of various horses entered in the upcoming Ascot races. Across from her, seated in matching chairs of emerald damask, Mrs. Carleton and Lady Breeton sipped tea and compared milliners.
    Her enormous bosom swathed in gray silk, the marchioness leaned forward, looking like a well fed pouter pigeon. “You must take care,” she cooed, “to check your account very closely. Why, just last week, I was charged for an ostrich plume when the bonnet I’d ordered only had a cock’s feather.”
    She shook her head disapprovingly and her fleshy neck jiggled. Juliet gulped back a grin. Curious, how Lady Breeton possessed such an abundance of chins, while her son had been deprived of even one.
    As Dorothea uttered a polite reply, Juliet’s mind strayed to the previous