Read Online Lily and the Lion by Emily Dalton - Free Book Online

you?"
Julian raised a supercilious brow. "I may safely promise you that I shall not plague Miss Clarke in any way."
"Pardon me, my lord." Miss Clarke spoke up in dulcet tones. "I do not recall that you asked me to take dinner with you. Goodness, but my memory must be failing!"
"As well you know, Miss Clarke," replied Julian, sporting an equally honeyed smile, "I never asked you"
Miss Clarke bristled, obviously determined not to be ordered about by the likes of him. His smile broadened. "I'm asking you now."
Something flickered in Miss Clarke's eyes, something between irritation and reluctant appreciation... for his audacity, he supposed. Despite herself, despite her disapproval of him and his cynical refusal to love all of God's creatures, she appeared to be on the point of agreeing to dine with him. Perhaps he presented a challenge. Perhaps the saint meant to help the sinner see the folly of his ways. What the sinner's motives were in inviting the saint to dine with him were most unclear to Julian, but he would not speculate.
Miss Clarke laid an index finger against her cheek and pursed her lips consideringly, as all the while her gleaming eyes hinted at a certain enjoyment in her power to refuse or accept his invitation. She probably had precious little experience with the opposite sex, though she handled herself very well despite this fact. "When do you mean to dine?" she finally asked him.
"At seven."
"In the parlour?"
"Yes."
"I'll be there. But you must put up with a rather drab little dress I stuffed into my portmanteau this morning," she confided matter-of-factly. "I haven't a lot of toggery, you know, and I chose it because it's warmer than most of my gowns."
"I shall contrive to 'put up' with it, Miss Clarke," Julian assured her. "Now do go and order Peter's dinner. I fancy he's sharp-set by now."
Miss Clarke looked a little abashed, as though she had indeed forgotten all about Peter and his dinner. She threw her patient a look replete with guilt and apology, smiled uncertainly, and swiftly left the room. Julian was still gazing at the door through which she had exited when he was recalled to the moment by his nephew's indignant voice.
"I'd never have thought it of you, Uncle, but having seen it with my own eyes...!"
Julian unhurriedly removed his greatcoat and draped it on a chair by the fire. "What can you mean, Nephew?"
"You were flirting with her! You were casting out lures to my nurse, my Lily!"
Julian "tsk-tsked." He bent to pull on Peter's sleeve, easing out first one arm, then the other from the heavy coat. "I don't suppose you noticed that the lady finds me quite hopelessly beyond the pale. I'm not in the habit of casting out lures to women that haven't the slightest inclination to like me, you know. A damnable thing, rejection. I don't court it."
Peter eyed him suspiciously. "Don't say she doesn't like you. All females like you."
Julian draped Peter's coat on another chair near the fire, then proceeded to go down on his knees to remove his nephew's boots. "Well, though she is decidedly female, Miss Clarke doesn't like me. Bend your foot, Peter. Dash it, where is Pleshy when I need him? Probably dallying with that chaperon cum coquette, Janet!"
Peter looked a little relieved by his uncle's offhand assurance of Lily's indifference to him, but upon further consideration of the situation couldn't help but express concern for another possible complication. "It's all very well that she don't like you, Uncle, but do you like her?"
Julian did not reply at first, but busied himself with the task of tugging off Peter's tight-fitting Blucher boot. While Peter's girth had shrunk in size, his feet were as big as ever.
Did he like Miss Lilith Clarke? Julian wondered. An interesting question. Despite her stomach-disordering cheerfulness and affection for all of mankind in general—criminals not excluded—he had the most unsettling impression that he liked her rather well.
"She's not my sort, Peter," he told his nephew