Her Every Wish Read Online Free PDF

We should…consider a replacement now.”
    â€œI am not available on a permanent basis,” Crash said smoothly. “My innocent young ears would burn off if I had to listen to more than an evening of your conversation.”
    They all laughed good-naturedly.
    â€œYoung man,” said Miss Walsh, “you do realize that we know you?”
    â€œWho?” he asked. “Me? You must be thinking of Nigel.”
    Ree had taught him to cheat, too, with everything he had in him. When the rules were stacked against you, cheating was a moral necessity.
    A moment earlier in the day flashed in front of him—Daisy looking up at him in disapproval.
    Stop flirting with me, she had said.
    As if he wanted to flirt with her. Every time he saw her, every time she threw her so-perfect fiancé in his face, he became more and more certain that he’d had the luckiest of escapes. All those months spent worrying while he was in Paris…they’d been for nothing. He’d hoped for a letter. A telegram. A single word.
    Not a damned thing had come. He’d not thought her the sort of person who would treat him like a shameful secret, one to be hidden as soon as possible. He was done flirting with Daisy.
    She could have her emporium and her sweetheart. He’d learned long ago not to waste tears on anyone who pushed him away. Not shopkeepers. Not stablehands. Not even sweethearts he’d once intended to marry.
    He smiled and poured little jiggers of rum for the women who had raised him. They had told him not to listen when the country shouted that he was nothing. They had taught him to walk with his head held high, to act as if he meant something even though nobody else would agree.
    He wouldn’t spare a thought for the woman who’d decided he meant nothing. He didn’t want her back. He didn’t care how she felt about him.
    All he wanted was for Daisy Whitlaw to realize how wrong she’d been and to regret her stupidity. He wanted her to marry her stupid sub-lieutenant and have equally stupid children and look out her stupid window and think occasionally: I suppose Crash was right after all. I made a mistake.
    Aside from that? He didn’t care one bit. He wouldn’t let himself do it.

Chapter Three
    D aisy was always going to feel like an interloper on her Sunday visits to her best friend. She’d resigned herself to that fact.
    It didn’t matter that Judith ushered her into a front salon as if she were regular company. The walls of the luxurious room were covered in a white-and-gold damask silk. The table Daisy sat at was laden with goodies: biscuits, sandwiches, scones.
    Once, Judith had lived just across the street from Daisy. At first Daisy had felt she was the luckier of the two. Her father might have failed as a grocer, but he’d had a bit of an annuity, and her mother had been frugal enough, and genteel enough, to teach Daisy everything she had needed to know. Then Daisy’s life had jagged down. Her father had died; his annuity had disappeared. Her mother had become ill. Alongside that, Judith’s luck had jagged up, and then up again. She’d married a wealthy, powerful man she had known from her childhood. Now, instead of exchanging bread recipes and household tips, the two women sat at a table where three years of Daisy’s labor would not pay for all the china.
    â€œHere,” Judith said with a smile. “Would you care for a roast beef sandwich?”
    â€œOf course I would,” Daisy said with a smile.
    Once, Daisy and Judith had gone shopping together and joked of purchasing kid gloves with diamonds. They’d talked about adding gold leaf to their meager meals. It had been silly, ridiculous—and utterly necessary for Daisy’s peace of mind. Their little game had provided perspective on her wants. Your wishes are silly. Be happy you have soup bones, Daisy. You could have less.
    â€œHow goes the flower shop?” Judith