A Love for All Time Read Online Free PDF

man?” she demanded of Robin.
    “Who?” he said not particularly interested in a silly quarrel.
    “Over there!” Aidan tried not to be too obvious as she pointed. “The taller of the two. The one who would apologize rather than fight in the queen’s presence.”
    Robin glanced to where she indicated, and then he laughed. “ ’Tis my uncle Conn O’Malley.”
    “Yer uncle?! He doesn’t look a thing like you!” she protested.
    “He’s my mother’s youngest half-brother, and I look exactly like my late father, Geoffrey Southwood,” came the answer.
    “I never saw such an attractive man in my entire life,” Aidan almost whispered.
    “He’s called the Handsomest Man at Court,” Robin said dryly. “All the ladies make fools of themselves over him. The queen calls him Adonis.”
    “It suits him,” Aidan said softly.
    Robin snorted. “Ye should have seen him when he first came to England. He was in truth a wild man with a black beard, and hair to his shoulders. He wore woolen trews and a plaid, and couldn’t speak decent English, and when he did speak our tongue his brogue was thicker than a Devon fog. My mother sheared him like a sheep, taught him civilized manners, and brought him to court. Within a day ye’d have thought he’d been brought up here. Uncle Conn took to court like a gentleman to the manor born. He’s one of the queen’s favorites. She appointed him to her guard, the Gentlemen Pensioners. He has not done bad for a man who was born his father’s last child.”
    Aidan laughed. “I thought,” she said, “that the queen commended yer discretion. Yer gossip is better than a goodwife’s on market day.”
    “I only told ye so ye’d be warned, Aidan,” replied Robin, his voice sounding a trifle offended.
    “Warned about what?”
    “My uncle is the biggest rake this court has ever seen. I have already said women make fools of themselves over him, and they do. There hasn’t been a night since he came to court that his bachelor’s bed hasn’t been warmed by some pretty chit. He can charm a duck from the water and onto a spit,” said Robin with just the barest hint of admiration in his voice.
    “How kind ye are to care about me,” Aidan said to the young earl, “but I doubt yer uncle will ever look in my direction, Robin. I am not nor will I ever be one of this court’s great beauties. It is said, however, that a cat may look at a king, and he really is gorgeous!”
    Her words, and gentle manner somewhat mollified the boy Earl of Lynmouth. Looking up into Aidan’s face he chuckled at the merriment in her eyes. “ ’Tis a terrible word to use to describe a man,” he said, but his mouth turned up in a grin.
    “But ’tis true, Robin Southwood!”
    Robin laughed. “I suppose it is,” he said. Then finding the other maids of honor he said, “I’ll fetch ye when the queen dismisses the court later,” and he was gone to stand behind the queen’s chair which was his own special post at meals.
    For a moment Aidan stood not quite certain what to do, but then the girl she had seen earlier, the one called Linnet Talbot, made room for her on the bench, and she squeezed in amongst the others.
    “Thank you,” Aidan said. “I am sorry about your friend.”
    “It wasn’t yer fault,” said Linnet. “Sooner or later Althea was going to be sent home for one misbehavior or another. She had no sense.”
    “Have ye been friends long?”
    “Only since she came here four months ago. Her family is from York. Where are ye from?”
    “My estates are near Worcester,” said Aidan.
    “I come from Kent,” said Linnet. “My family are distant relations of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s family. Let me introduce ye to the others. This is Mary Warburton, Dorothy Saxon, Jane Anne Bowen, and Catherine Baldwin. The others aren’t at this table, but then most of them are from the high-and-mighty families, and we’re not. We’re here because our families have connections that have allowed us the