Lady Elinor's Wicked Adventures Read Online Free PDF Page B

thought that you had quite forgotten our existence.”
    He flinched at the sting, deserved as it was. Had she polished that speech, preparing for this scene? All the words he had rehearsed had vanished from his mind.
    â€œOh no,” Olivia protested. “I knew you were coming back. When we found out you had left, Mama said you would not come back, but I was sure you would. We had your letters.”
    â€œYour letters.” Julia’s voice was flat. “Let me see. You wrote to us from Greece and told us there were ruins. Then came India. You said it was hot. And America. You said the Great Plains were flat and empty.”
    He forced himself to meet her eyes. “I’m sorry. That sounds ridiculously inadequate, I know. I can’t explain, but I had to leave. I simply had to.”
    â€œSorry? Sorry that you left?” she asked incredulously.
    â€œNo. Sorry that I had to leave you and Olivia here on your own.”
    They stared at each other in silence. Finally, she turned away and flopped down in a chair. The haughty young lady had been replaced by a sulky child. “You might as well sit down,” she said. “I’m not really angry.” She thought for a moment. “Well, yes, I am. But it’s mostly envy. I’d run away too if I could.”
    He sat down on a sofa cautiously, with Olivia beside him clinging to his hand. He had no idea what he ought to say. It was as if his sisters were strangers.
    Well, of course they seemed like strangers. They’d been little more than babies when he went off to school, and since then he had never been at the Abbey for more than a few days at a time. But they were his sisters. He felt that he ought to know them. Pip knew his sisters.
    In fact, he knew Pip’s sisters too. Far better than he knew his own. He squirmed uncomfortably. He wasn’t even sure how old Julia was, though she certainly wasn’t a child anymore. In fact, she was really quite pretty, and her hair was up. That meant she was grown up, didn’t it? He thought for a moment. She was seventeen, he was sure of it. Unless she was eighteen. No, seventeen. “Have you come out yet?”
    The abrupt question won him a glare. “No, I haven’t. Nor will I be coming out this season. Something else I have to thank you for.”
    He blinked. “How can that be my fault?”
    â€œWithout you about, Mama was trying to pretend she was not much older than thirty. That fiction will be harder to maintain once I am out.”
    â€œThat’s ludicrous.” He had to laugh. “You can’t be serious.”
    She shrugged, the look on her face far too cynical for a young girl.
    â€œAre you going to be staying now?” Olivia was looking up at him with those big brown eyes.
    â€œDon’t be foolish, Livvy,” said Julia. “Why would he want to stay?”
    â€œIt’s not that,” he said, the guilt piling up. “I’m going to Italy in a week or so with the Tremaines.”
    â€œOh, of course,” said Julia. “With the Tremaines. It’s always been the Tremaines. For as long as I can remember, you’ve stopped off to see us only on your way to the Tremaines. They’re your real family. Not us.”
    The protest died in his throat. The Tremaines weren’t his real family. He knew that all too well. But he had always wished they were, and he had been able to find a refuge with them for all those years. Did his sisters have such a choice? “Do you have some friends you can stay with? Some neighbors?”
    Julia gave a short, bitter laugh. “Respectable people wish to have nothing to do with us. We might bring the contagion of the notorious Lady Doncaster with us.”
    What an idiot he had been. He should have realized that it would be even worse for them as girls than it had been for him. He had been able to fight, and after he had bloodied enough noses, the other boys left him alone. Girls