A Lily Among Thorns Read Online Free PDF Page A

wanted to seem cool and collected in front of those boys at Cambridge, how he’d tried for a bored drawl and could never, ever manage it. How much he’d hated them for that.
    Don’t take it so hard
, he wanted to tell her.
You were amazing.
But he didn’t need to be an empirical scientist to guess that she would hate that. She hadn’t even wanted to admit to being nettled by Lord Smollett. So he waited until the soup plates were removed and two lovely fillets of sole
à la Lyonnaise
were brought out to venture a “Lady Serena?”
    She started like a sleepwalker. “Yes, what is it?” She picked up her first fork and began to push the sole around her plate.
    “Are you—?” Her eyebrows drew together, and he gave up. “We were speaking of my robbery.”
    “Yes, of course. Your robbery,” she said mechanically. “Tell me about it.”
    Solomon didn’t want to discuss it either. He wanted to talk about something else, something that had nothing to do with business or family. He wanted to see if he could make her laugh. He wanted to tell her, even though he knew she would sneer (no,
because
he knew she would sneer; he liked her sneer) how much he’d like to be able to silence a party of young bucks with just a lifted brow and an icy tone of command. He’d always been able to manage chemical reactions, but people frequently eluded him.
    But his mother was at her wits’ end. Besides, just because he liked her and they both hated Lord Smollett, it didn’t mean anything. It certainly didn’t mean they had a connection or that she wanted to talk to
him
. He only felt as if it did because he missed his brother so much he would have talked to a rock if it stayed still long enough.
Only you wouldn’t, would you?
he thought.
You haven’t wanted to talk to anyone in a year and a half.
“It happened Monday last,” he said. “On the road not far from London, just before High Wycombe. I assumed the earrings would be sold immediately, but I’ve had no luck tracking them down. I’ve circulated their description to as many jewelers as I could find, but I’m sure I missed dozens. The earrings aren’t in any catalog and they aren’t valuable enough to be recognized on sight.”
    Lady Serena shook her head impatiently. “Jewelers won’t help you. You need to seek out receivers.”
    “I don’t know any receivers.”
    Bullying him seemed to restore her good humor. She gave him a small, superior smile. “Naturally you don’t, Solomon. Why would a fine, upstanding citizen like you be acquainted with anyone who traffics in stolen goods? That is why you haveengaged someone who knows every rogue in London by their Christian name to act for you in the matter.”
    So calling him by his Christian name hadn’t just been for Smollett’s benefit. She was teasing him about Uncle Dewington’s comment. Well, two could play that game. He smiled back. “Then what’s our first step, Serena?”
    She ignored the “our” and the “Serena” equally. “I’ll put out some initial inquiries, but anything more will have to wait. The greater part of the Carlton House set is coming here for dinner on Saturday and I won’t have time for anything else until after that.”
    Solomon felt ashamed of his awe, but he couldn’t help it. “The Carlton House set? You mean, the Prince Regent?”
    On anyone else, it would have been a grin. On her, it was an amused smile. “Surely you aren’t impressed? A good republican like you?”
    Solomon spent most of the next day collecting wallpaper samples for Lady Serena’s bed-hangings and attempting to match the saffron color of one of the most dilapidated rooms. At first it felt strange working in an unfamiliar room, but before long he’d forgotten everything but the three feet of table in front of him, clear and clean and brilliantly lit by his clockwork Carcel oil lamp, scrimped for and ordered from Paris. He loved working; it made everything else go away. Since Elijah’s death, it was the