Into Temptation (Spoils of Time 03) Read Online Free PDF

hover over it, ‘Mrs Hardwicke, I said leave it laid.’
    She didn’t like Mrs Hardwicke very much; she couldn’t forgive her for not being Brunson, the butler who had looked after the household for almost fifty years, and who had died, as if it was the only decent thing to do, a very few weeks after Oliver.

    But Kit would not come. He was too angry, too shocked, his last shreds of faith in his mother’s virtue finally destroyed.
    ‘I don’t feel I can ever meet her or speak to her again,’ he had said to Izzie on the telephone, his voice raw with pain. ‘I simply cannot understand her, Izzie. Is she absolutely wicked or absolutely mad?’
    ‘Neither,’ said Izzie, ‘she’s just your mother. Doing what she feels she must. A law unto herself.’
    ‘A bad law. How is Sebastian?’
    ‘Very very upset. And baffled, like you.’
    ‘Should I come—’
    ‘I don’t know. I could ask him. If you like.’
    ‘Yes. Would you, Izzie? Thank you.’
    Izzie put the phone down, went into her father’s study. He was sitting at his desk, staring out at the darkening sky, white, drawn, his eyes redrimmed.
    ‘Father—’
    ‘Yes, what is it Isabella? I don’t want to be continually disturbed, I know you mean well, but—’
    ‘Kit’s on the phone. Would you like him to come and—’
    ‘No, no.’ He shook his head, sighed heavily, managed to smile at her. ‘I don’t think so. But thank him for offering. I just want to be alone. Maybe in a day or two. Shut the door would you?’
    ‘Yes father.’
    Kit was getting drunk, he told her.
    ‘Oh Kit. Shall I—’
    ‘No. No, better not. Stay there with—’
    ‘Yes of course. But tomorrow we could—’
    ‘Yes, fine. About one?’
    They communicated in half-sentences, rather like the twins. It was interesting, especially to those who did not know their history.
     
    ‘Now I hope you will understand.’ Celia had risen to her feet; dinner was over. ‘And forgive what appears to be my rather shocking haste. As I said to Venetia, time is in short supply at my – our age. I loved Oliver very much. Very, very much. We had a fine marriage. And I think I made him happy.’ She looked round the table, daring anyone to dissent. ‘I certainly tried. But – now he is dead. And I am very lonely.’ She paused; clearly feeling very strongly the need to explain, thought Adele. Celia hated admitting to any kind of weakness. And she would certainly perceive feeling lonely as that.
    ‘But I do know,’ said Celia, ‘Oliver would have wanted me to be happy. Generosity was one of his many virtues. And I am quite certain that I shall be. I have known Lord Arden for a long time, I am extremely fond of him, and we have a great deal in common. We can have a few – I hope not too few – very good years. And having decided it was the right thing for me – for us – to do, I also decided there should be no delay. As you know, having made a decision, I like to act. You are all adults; how I arrange my private life should not greatly affect you.’
    Another silence; someone should say something, thought Venetia; even as the thought drifted into her head Boy stood up. ‘I think we should all raise our glasses to you Celia. You deserve every happiness. To Celia.’
    ‘To Grandmother,’ said Henry Warwick, smiling, ‘from our generation.’ Celia smiled back at him, blew him a kiss down the table. A dutiful murmur of ‘Grandmother’ went round the room.
    ‘Thank you,’ said Celia. ‘Now, there are some practical details. We plan to marry very quickly – perhaps even within the month. Just a quiet ceremony, in a register office, family only. Anything more would be – distasteful, we thought.’
    And when did she ever do anything quietly, thought Helena. She’d manage to make a grand opera out of it somehow; tell half the press, invite a hundred friends . . .
    ‘And I also wanted to explain more fully why I am leaving Lyttons. I feel I owe it to Lord Arden to be at his side,