Read Online Irish Rose by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

you feel settled in, I'll show you the rest."
    Erin only nodded. The space alone left her speechless. Adelia opened a door and gestured her inside.
    "This is the guest room. I wish we'd had time to have some flowers for you." She glanced around the room, regretting she hadn't been able to add a few more personal touches. "The bath's down the end of the hall, and I'm sorry to say the children are always flinging wet towels around and making a mess of it."
    The room was done in gray and rose with a big brass bed and a thick carpet. The furniture was a rich mahogany with gleaming brass pulls and a tall framed mirror over the bureau. There were knickknacks here and there, a little china dog, a rose-colored goblet, more brass in a whimsical study of a lion. The terrace doors showed the white expanse of snow through gauzy curtains, making a dreamlike boundary between warmth and cold. Unable to speak, Erin gripped her case in both hands and just looked.
    "Will it suit you? You're free to change anything you like."
    "No." Erin managed to get past the block in her throat, but her hands didn't relax on the handle of the case. "It's the most beautiful room I've ever seen. I don't know what to say."
    "Say it pleasures you." Gently Dee pried the case from her. "I want you to feel comfortable, Erin, at home. I knew what it's like to leave things behind and come to some place strange."
    Erin took a deep breath. She wasn't able to bear it, not for another second. "I don't deserve this."
    "What foolishness." Businesslike, Dee set the case on the bed with the intention of helping her cousin unpack.
    "No, please." Erin put her hand over Dee's, then sat. She didn't want her cousin to tire herself, and she didn't want her to see what a pitiful amount she'd brought with her. "I have to confess."
    Amused, Dee sat beside her. "Do you want a priest?"
    With a watery laugh that shamed her, Erin shook her head. "I've been so jealous of you." There, it was out.
    Dee considered a minute. "But you're much prettier than I am."
    "No, that's not true, and that's not it, in any case." Erin opened her mouth again, then let out a long breath. "Oh, I hate confession."
    "Me, too. Sinning just comes natural to some of us."
    Erin glanced over, saw both the warmth and humor and relaxed. "It comes natural enough to me. I was jealous of you. Am," she corrected, determined to make a clean breast of it. "I'd think about you here in a big, beautiful house, with pretty things and pretty clothes, your family, all the things that go with it, and I'd just near die with envy. When I met you at the airport that day, I was resentful and nervous."
    "Nervous?" She could pass over resentment easily. "About seeing me? Erin, we all but grew up together."
    "But you moved here, and you're rich." She closed her eyes. "I've a powerful lust for money."
    A smile trembled on Dee's lips, but she managed to control it. "Well, that doesn't seem like a very big sin to me. A couple of days in purgatory, maybe. Erin, I know what is it not to have and to wish for more. I don't think less of you for envying me—in truth, I'm flattered. I suppose that's a sin, too," she added after a moment's thought.
    "It's worse because you're so kind to me, all of you, and I feel like I'm using you."
    "Maybe you are. But I'm using you as well, to bring Ireland a little closer, to be my friend. I have a sister—Travis's sister. But she moved away about two years ago. I can't tell you how much I miss her. I guess I was hoping you'd fill the hole."
    Because her conscience was soothed by the admission, Erin touched a hand to Dee's. "I guess it's not so bad if we use each other."
    "Let's just see what happens. Now I'll help you unpack."
    "Let's leave it. I'd really like to go down and have a cup of tea."
    As Erin rose, Adelia eyed her. "Did Travis tell you to keep me off my feet?"
    "I don't know what you're talking about."
    "Lying's a sin, too," Dee reminded her, but she smiled as she led her downstairs.
    She dreamed