If I Fall Read Online Free PDF

silent.
    “How long have you been in town, Miss Forrester?” Lady Worth asked, as nonchalant as if she had asked the question in full daylight in a room full of society ladies.
    “A fortnight, ma’am,” Sarah answered, her eyes following Lady Worth as she gently paced the carpet.
    “And in that fortnight, how many invitations have you received from me?”
    “Ah … I am uncertain…” Sarah hedged.
    “As luck would have it, I am entirely certain. Two. You have received two invitations from me to come to tea. I know this because I rarely ask anything of anyone more than once.”
    “Oh,” she replied, knowing she sounded stupid and out of her depth … because in truth, she was. “I think, ma’am”—she tried valiantly—“that my mother thought—that is, she didn’t want us to accept any invitations until after we had settled…”
    But at that, Lady Worth stopped pacing, and simply stood with her hands on her hips. “I have always preferred the truth to pretty lies, my dear. But if you insist upon continuing with that sentence at least speak it with conviction.”
    Sarah’s head came up sharply. She met the challenge in the taller lady’s eyes. And decided to rise to it.
    “How could I visit with you, Lady Worth, when your family is connected to Jason’s?”
    Sarah had thought to shock Phillippa Worth. And she had. But not for the reasons she had imagined. Because while she read surprise in that lady’s eyes, she also recognized not horror, but applause.
    “Yes, my husband’s brother is married to the Duke of Rayne’s sister.” Lady Worth waved her hand in the air again, seemingly waving away anything that she did not consider important. “But that is exactly why you
should
have accepted my invitation.”
    “Lady Worth, I…” Sarah tried, but suddenly, she felt very tired. The weight of the party, overhearing her parents andsister’s conversation, and now the mad assault on logic and propriety that was Lady Worth being in her library, settled over Sarah, and she could no longer stop her shoulders from slumping.
    “Do you mind if I sit down?” she asked, already half seated on the settee.
    Lady Worth, to her credit, immediately sat down with Sarah and, in what she must have thought was a sympathetic gesture, patted Sarah’s hand.
    “Would you like me to call for some tea? Or perhaps sherry?” Lady Worth inquired kindly.
    Sarah let out a small, exhausted laugh. “Lady Worth, we are in my house. I should be offering tea to you.”
    “Oh,” she replied, with a smile. “I nearly forgot. And I think this will be simpler if you take to calling me Phillippa, and I call you Sarah.”
    “What will be simpler?” Sarah asked hoping to finally understand … anything.
    Lady Worth—Phillippa—regarded her quietly for a moment.
    “It’s too early in the Season for you to be this tired,” she finally observed.
    Sarah thought about denying it, thought about making excuses … but somehow, she couldn’t fight it any longer. She couldn’t pretend to be even and fine. The only thing left to do was admit her failings.
    To give in to gravity’s pull.
    “I don’t know what to do,” Sarah admitted. “Tonight, we had our first party—my mother was so excited to be a hostess again, and it’s my sister’s first Season, and it was just—”
    “Terrible,” Phillippa supplied. At Sarah’s questioning look, Phillippa smiled in bemusement. “Really, you should simply assume that I know everything already. It saves time.”
    “Yes, but how—”
    “At least three of your evening’s attendees were at the Newlins’ ball after your fete. Interestingly, no fewer than five people fought through the crush to rush to my side and let me know—as the only connection to the Duke of Rayne in town—just how unfortunate your supper party was.”
    Sarah started rubbing one of her temples. “Wonderful. Everyone will know.”
    “Oh, I’d expect that it will be in the papers tomorrow.”
    “So all of