Read Online Letter From a Rake: Destiny Romance by Sasha Cottman - Free Book Online

about them and the moment they did, she would be obliged to say how delighted she had been to receive them.
    ‘I hope you were from anyone but Lord Brooke,’ she whispered as she breathed in the exquisite scent of the white orchids. Mr David Radley seemed a decent enough man and it would be far less complicated if the flowers were his way of apologising on behalf of the entire Radley family.

Chapter 5
    Millie spent the rest of the day quietly working on her tapestry. She had found a perfect spot in front of a window in one of the upper-level sitting rooms. The morning light allowed her to sort the various skeins into the shades of white and grey she would need as she began the painstaking task of recreating the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral in wool.
    Her mother had offered to take her shopping on the second morning after the party, but she was content to remain at home. Lucy had sent a note offering her sympathies after receiving word that Millie was still suffering the effects of the long sea voyage from India. At some point Millie and Violet would have to call on the Duchess of Strathmore, but for the time being, the ladies of the Ashton household would not be making any social calls, nor receiving visitors.
    Millie was still working in the sitting room later that morning when Grace entered carrying a delicate array of white rosebuds, wrapped in a sapphire-blue ribbon. Millie looked up from her tapestry frame and seeing the flowers, stopped mid-stitch and let out a sigh.
    ‘I don’t suppose they came with a note, did they?’ she asked. When Grace shook her head and replied that the card had been the same as the first, Millie stabbed her needle into the fabric and sat back in her chair. ‘Same form of delivery as yesterday?’
    ‘No, Miss; these came via a delivery boy from the florist. When he came to the rear entrance of the house, Mr Stephens asked who had sent them, but the lad said he didn’t know. He did say it was a young man who had placed the order, and it had gone on the Duke of Strathmore’s personal account.’
    Grace held the flowers up to the light from the window and examined them, running her fingers over the silk ribbon.
    ‘Well, whoever he is, he certainly likes blue. Maybe he wants them to match the colour of your eyes, Miss. Shall I put them in a vase for you, or would you like me to leave them here so you can look at them?’ Grace said.
    ‘Thank you, Grace. Would you put them next to the other ones in my bedroom, please? I don’t want the whole house seeing them,’ Millie replied.
    She sensed the hairs on the back of her neck moving. What had Grace said about the gentleman who was sending her flowers liking the colour of her eyes? She thought back to the events of the party and her heart sank. She had been a fool to hope it had been David Radley sending her the lovely gifts.
    The obvious answer was far less palatable, as was the notion that the flowers were not meant to be an apology and hence the reason for the card being blank.
    She crossed her arms and pursed her lips. Only one of Lady Lucy’s brothers had stood and held her gaze for any length of time; only one would know that her eyes were the deepest of dark blues.
    Her father had always said her eyes were the colour of a perfect sapphire because she was a true jewel of India. She had worn deep blue ribbons in her hair all throughout her childhood, believing that she was the reincarnation of an ancient Hindu princess. Millie loved the colour of her eyes. It angered her to think someone could try to use them to cause her pain.
    Yesterday’s flowers were no accident, no, they were merely a way for him to get to her while she was at home. By sending her blue flowers, and then the blue ribbons, it was his sly way of saying that he had taken in all of her physical features and would, over time, show her just what he had seen and what he thought of her.
    With his initial public humiliation of her now achieved, he was shifting the game