Read Online Season For Desire by Theresa Romain - Free Book Online

at his side, declined to comment—though the expression on her face was worth a few choice sentences.
    Overall, Sophy—for so she insisted they all call her—looked as though she didn’t miss much, but didn’t dwell on what did pass her by. After a marriage to the unfortunate Jack Parr, Estella supposed these qualities had stood her in good stead.
    “Where is the footman who traveled with us?” asked Giles Rutherford.
    Estella coughed. Americans . As though the Parrs would be bothered to know the location of servants not of the household.
    “He is resting in the servants’ quarters.” This from Audrina, seated demurely and seeming not to notice the looks of surprise on everyone’s faces. “Lady Irving’s maid, Lizzie, informed me. After several long days of travel, he felt unwell.”
    Giles frowned. “Sorry to hear it. He looked half-dead on his feet yesterday.”
    “Take him in as one of your strays,” Estella said to Lady Dudley. “Feed him biscuits and teach him to heel.”
    “That sounds about right for training a footman.” Lord Dudley gave a wheeze of laughter. “They don’t all get biscuits, though. Maybe they should.”
    Lady Dudley’s hair fell around her face. “Daughter of Alleyneham, you should keep an eye out for strays and send them my way.”
    “Call me Lady Audrina, please.” The girl had spirit to go with her manners, Estella was glad to hear. She tossed off the correction with a smile, never pausing as she cut into a slice of beef.
    “What sort of a name is that? I’ve never heard it before.” Sophy sounded interested.
    “It’s my father’s name, in a way.” Audrina kept the smile on her face, though her hands went still. “He is called Adrian. I am the youngest of five sisters, and by the time I came along, he knew he would never have a son to take his name. I was given it instead.”
    “So you are Daughter of Alleyneham.” Lady Dudley sounded triumphant.
    The knife and fork resumed their motion. “That was never in question, I hope. But I also hope you will not blame me for that, any more than you might blame me for having dark hair or looking a certain way.”
    Estella snorted. “Oh, I don’t think anyone’s likely to blame you for the way you look, young lady.” Audrina took after her paternal grandmother, if Estella recalled that lady aright, which meant the fortunate girl had escaped both her mother’s weak chin and her father’s harsh brow.
    “Rather cold in here, isn’t it?” Lord Dudley spoke into the midst of another conversation, cupping at his ear. “Fireplaces don’t seem to be drawing correctly. Only let me know if you get chilled”—he winked—“and we can add a splash of something to the afternoon tea.”
    The conversation took few unexpected twists after that, as Richard Rutherford raced through his meal and cast approximately ten thousand sidelong glances at Sophy. Wondering about the puzzle box, maybe, though Estella felt all the difference between Sophy’s fresh forty years and her own fifty-eight. Giles seemed preoccupied as well, too much so to let off another of the verbal cannon-shots with which he’d entertained her in the carriage. It was left to Audrina and Sophy and the Dudleys to chat, mostly about the home. And since no one bothered to call it a great drafty pile in the middle of godforsaken moorland , their observations were hardly worth listening to.
    “May I offer you some cheese, Lady Irving?”
    She blinked at being addressed, and realized Richard Rutherford was the one who had done so. He stood behind her chair, near the sideboard, and held a small knife with which others had carved sectors of Cheddar from a fat wedge.
    Estella’s stomach gave a gurgle of acceptance. She had taken little food—her corsets were getting more and more difficult to lace—yet her appetite stubbornly refused to vanish. “I don’t eat cheese, Rutherford. Cheese is vulgar.” Her voice sounded more snappish than she intended, and not the