Come Be My Love Read Online Free PDF

is ready." She glanced back at Sarah, giving her a contrite smile.
    Lady Cromwell looked over her shoulder at Jon and scowled, clearly displeased that he was not the one to escort her to dinner as protocol demanded. Jon ignored his mother. Collecting Sarah's hand, he tucked it into the crook of his elbow. Covering it with his palm, he looked down at her with hooded eyes, and said, "You'll have to excuse our mother. She was unprepared for visitors." He ushered her toward the dining room.
    Sarah's palm, trapped beneath Jon's large hand, rested against a rock-hard forearm. "Yes, I can see that everyone was," she said, her attention divided between the gist of their conversation and the feel of an unusually muscular arm. Looking up at him, she added, "My maid and I will see to finding other quarters at once."
    Something wickedly dangerous flickered in the dark depths of Jon's eyes. "That would be a bloody shame," he said, "and would hamper things greatly. If you spirit yourself away, how are we to conduct a proper dalliance?" His gaze lingered on her mouth.
    Sarah gave him a faint, insolent smile. "We aren't."
    Jon leaned toward her. "Now there's a grim thought which I'll simply dismiss."
    Sarah looked at him sharply, and he gazed steadily back, giving no indication that her sharp look affected him. Rather, he seemed to derive amusement from it. Ignoring him, she focused on a table graced with exquisite porcelain dinnerware, fine crystal goblets, and a pair of elegant silver candelabra. Adjacent to the table stood a carved sideboard displaying an ornate silver tureen filled to the brim with steaming green pea soup; a silver tray with a poached salmon fancifully decorated with black olives, small onions, and egg slices; a white and gold porcelain platter holding a honey-baked ham garnished with whole cloves and pineapple slices; and several elegant silver serving bowls and trays containing glazed carrots, steamed chard, muffins, banana fritters, rhubarb tarts, cheeses, and an assortment of small cakes.
    Jon seated first his mother, then Sarah, and lastly Esther. After the soup was served, Lady Cromwell, who sat opposite Jon at the end of the long table, took a dainty sip, swallowed, then looked down the table at her son and said, "Jonathan, there is need for more illumination in the streets. There was another incident in town. Young John Work stumbled on the planks on Government Street and fell into the ditch."
    Snickering, Esther took a banana fritter from the platter offered by Ida, and said, "The way I heard it was that young John Work stumbled out of the Brown Jug, dizzy as a goose, and that’s why he fell into the ditch."
    Lady Cromwell shot a stony glance at her daughter, who sobered immediately. "Be that as it may," the older woman said, "the problem still persists."
    Sarah, certain she'd seen lamps lining the main thoroughfare as they'd driven through the streets of Victoria, looked at Jon and asked, "Does the city not have gas lighting?"
    "Yes," Jon replied, "but they're not in use, as we have been plagued with air leaking into the mains. But the problem will soon be remedied and the streets should again be well-lighted, at least in the mercantile district."
    "I'm relieved to hear that," Sarah said, reflecting on the tall storefront she'd fancied as one day being hers, a building with two brass lanterns adorning its fine brick facade. "It's important that the mercantile district be well-lighted."
    Jon looked at her with curiosity. "Is there a particular reason for your concern about our mercantile district after sundown?"
    "Well… yes," Sarah replied. "I plan to establish my own business."
    Jon cocked a brow. "A business that requires lighting at night?"
    Glaring at him with undisguised annoyance, Sarah said, "At times. I plan to establish a modiste, which will be supervised and operated by women, for the manufacture and sale of women's garments. It will frequently require my being in the building at night to sew