Read Online Lady Pirate by Lynsay Sands - Free Book Online

head.
    â€œFlowers.”
    â€œFlowers?” They gaped at him, but he shrugged, indifferent to their scorn.
    â€œI’m thinkin’ on growing me some roses. I’ve got a green thumb, don’t ye know. Think I’ll try me hand at makin’ one o’ them new roses. I’ll call it the Grand Valoree.”
    Valoree shook her head in disgust and sank back into her seat. Staring at her motley crew, she shook her head again and shrugged. “Fine,” she said with feigned indifference. “I shall marry. I suggest you go out and find me a husband. All you need is a nobleman capable of getting me with child. However, I warn you, he has to be willing to let me make all the decisions and run the roost. Otherwise, do you think he’ll let me set you all up on his estate? Good luck to you. I shall just wait here for you to accomplish the deed.”
    Grabbing her bottle of rum once more, she sank back into her seat.
    The room was silent for a moment as Valoree studiously ignored her men; then they slowly began to file out.
    â€œMarry,” she muttered, raising the rum to her mouth and gulping some of it down before shaking her head. “Me.” She was aware of her shortcomings. More than aware. They were all tied up in her past and who she was.
    Her parents had both died by the time Valoree was five—her mother breaking her neck in a fall down the stairs shortly after Valoree was born, and her father during a cholera outbreak when she was five. That had left her and Jeremy. Jeremy had been six years older than she, a tender eleven years old when they had been left to fend for themselves.
    Well, they hadn’t been left entirely to themselves; there had been Lord Swintun. He had been a neighbor and their guardian. He had been a kind and tender man who had been good to them both. Unfortunately, he had been less kind to their birthright. He’d raped the land, destroyed the pastures, and generally done his best to run the place into the ground, milking every drop of profit out of it that he could—as had been his right to do as guardian of the inheritance.
    Still and all, Valoree had been sorry when he had died in her tenth year. He truly had been kind and caring toward her and her brother. He had hired the best tutors for them, seen to Jeremy’s training, and openly nurtured them both. Then he had died, and they had been left in the hands of his son, a fellow who’d had a terrible tendency to leer at Valoree even at that tender age. It had been most uncomfortable for a while. Four years later, Jeremy had turned eighteen and taken Valoree home to Ainsley to reclaim their birthright.
    And that had been worse. Neither of them had been near the estate since their father’s death, and what they found was shocking. The manor house was uninhabitable, with not a stick of furniture left. Swintun’s son claimed it had all been stolen and, seeing as selling off the goods and household articles was not exactly accepted as a right of the guardian, they had believed him. There had been nothing to do about it by then anyway, as it was apparent that the furniture had been gone an awfully long time. The house had obviously been used as a squat for various passersby, including animals, birds, rats, and spiders.
    Cleaning and refurbishing had been what it needed. That took money, however, and that was something they were sadly short of. In his mismanagement of the land, Swintun had made it almost unrentable. Farmers would not rent land they could not work.
    Valoree recalled that Jeremy had taken one stunned look at his inheritance, walked around the destroyed entry and great hall, then moved to the fireplace, removed a small rock there, pulled out a bag, and turned away. He’d walked straight out, mounted his horse, and ridden off.
    Knowing he was distressed, and trying to help, Valoree had set her hand determinedly to cleaning up, hoping that she could make a difference.