Read Online The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quinn - Free Book Online Page B

She’d read Pride and Prejudice six times. That had to count for something.
    But Sarah was oblivious to her distress. “As I was saying,” she went on, “when a woman feels beautiful, she has a way about her.”
    It was on the tip of Iris’s tongue to say, “I wouldn’t know,” but she stopped herself.
    She didn’t want to be sarcastic. Not about this.
    â€œAnd when that happens,” Sarah said, “men flock to her side. There is something about a confident woman. Something . . . I don’t know . . . je ne sais quoi , as the French say.”
    â€œI’m thinking of switching to German,” Iris heard herself say.
    Sarah stared at her for a moment, her expression baffled, then carried on as if she had not even paused. “And that, my dear cousin,” she said with great flair, “is why every man in London wanted to dance with you last night.”
    Iris came back around the sofa and sat down, folding her hands in her lap as she thought about what Sarah had said. She was not sure she believed it, but nor could she dismiss it without consideration.
    â€œYou’re very quiet,” Sarah remarked. “I was certain you’d argue the point.”
    â€œI don’t know what to say,” Iris admitted.
    Sarah eyed her with open curiosity. “Are you all right?”
    â€œPerfectly. Why do you ask?”
    â€œYou seem different.”
    Iris gave a little shrug. “Perhaps it is my glow, as you termed it.”
    â€œNo,” Sarah said bluntly, “that’s not it.”
    â€œWell, that was a short-lived glow,” Iris quipped.
    â€œ Now you sound like yourself.”
    Iris just smiled and shook her head. “How are you ?” she asked, in a not-so-subtle attempt to change the subject.
    â€œVery well,” Sarah said with a broad smile, and it was then that Iris noticed . . . something.
    â€œYou seem different, too,” she said, eyeing her more closely.
    Sarah blushed.
    Iris gasped. “Are you expecting?”
    Sarah nodded. “How did you know?”
    â€œWhen you tell a married woman she looks different, and she blushes . . .” Iris grinned. “It can be nothing else.”
    â€œYou really do notice everything, don’t you?”
    â€œAlmost everything,” Iris said. “But you have not allowed me to congratulate you yet. This is wonderful news. Please do tell Lord Hugh that I wish him joy. How are you feeling? Have you been ill?”
    â€œNot at all.”
    â€œWell, that’s fortunate. Rose threw up every morning for three months straight.”
    Sarah winced in sympathy. “I feel splendid. Perhaps a little fatigued, but not terribly so.”
    Iris smiled at her cousin. It seemed so strange that Sarah would soon be a mother. They had played as children together, moaned about the musicale together. And now Sarah had moved on to the next phase of her life.
    And Iris was . . .
    Still here.
    â€œYou love him very much, don’t you?” she said quietly.
    Sarah did not reply right away, regarding her cousin with an expression of curiosity. “I do,” she said solemnly. “With everything I am.”
    Iris nodded. “I know.” She thought Sarah would speak then, perhaps to ask her why she’d made such a silly query, but Sarah remained silent, until Iris could not help but ask, “How did you know?”
    â€œKnow?”
    â€œThat you loved him.”
    â€œI—” Sarah stopped, pausing to think. “I’m not sure. I can’t really remember the exact moment. It’s funny, I always thought that if I did fall in love, I would do it in a grand flash of insight. You know, bolts of lightning, angels singing on high . . . that sort of thing.”
    Iris grinned. That did sound like Sarah. She’d always had a penchant for drama.
    â€œBut it wasn’t like that at all,” Sarah continued