Lady Whistledown Strikes Back Read Online Free PDF

well.”
    “And it is your aim in life to collect a score of gentlemen
in your drawing room?”
    His tone was patronizing, almost insulting, and Tillie was this close to having him booted from the house. Only his
friendship with Harry—and the fact that he was acting like such a prig because
he thought it was what Harry would have wanted—kept her from summoning the
butler right then.
    “My aim,” she said tightly, “is to find a husband. Not to
snare one, not to trap one, not to drag one to the altar, but to find one,
preferably one with whom I might share a long and contented life. Being a
practical sort of girl, it seemed only sensible to meet as many eligible
gentlemen as possible, so that my decision might be based on a broad base of
knowledge, and not upon, as so many young women are accused, a flight of
fancy.”
    She sat back, crossed her arms, and leveled a hard stare in
his direction. “Do you have any questions?”
    He regarded her with a blank expression for a moment, then
asked, “Do you want me to go and drag them all back?” “No! Oh,” she added, when
she saw his sly smile. “You’re teasing.”
    “Just a bit,” he demurred.
    If he’d been Harry, she would have tossed a pillow at him. If
he’d been Harry, she would have laughed. But if he’d been Harry, her eyes
wouldn’t have lingered on his mouth when he smiled, and she wouldn’t have felt
this strange heat in her blood, or this prickling on her skin.
    But most of all, if he’d been Harry, she wouldn’t feel this awful disappointment, because Peter Thompson was not her
older brother, and the last thing she wanted was for him to view himself as
such.
    But apparently, that was exactly how he felt. He’d promised
Harry that he’d look after her, and now she was nothing more than an
obligation. Did he even like her? Find her remotely interesting or amusing? Or
did he suffer - her company only because she was Harry’s sister?
    It was impossible to know—and a question she could never ask.
And what she really wanted was for him to leave, but that would mark her a
coward, and she didn’t want to be a coward. It was what she owed Harry, she’d
come to realize. To live her life with the courage and strength of purpose that
he’d exhibited at the end of his.
    Facing Peter Thompson seemed a rather pale comparison to
Harry’s brave deeds as a soldier, but no one was about to send her off to fight
for her country, so if she wanted to continue in her quest to face her fears,
this was going to have to do.
    “You’re forgiven this time,” she said, crossing her hands in
her lap.
    “Did I apologize?” he drawled, spearing her once again with
that slow, lazy smile.
    “No, but you should have done.” She smiled back, sweetly …
too sweetly. “I was raised to be charitable, so I thought I’d grant you the
apology you never gave.”
    “And the acceptance as well?”
    “Of course. I’d be churlish, otherwise.”
    He burst out laughing, a rich, warm sound that took Tillie by
surprise, and then made her smile in turn.
    “Very well,” he said. “You win. You absolutely, positively,
indubitably—”
    “Indubitably even?” she murmured with delight.
    “Even indubitably,” he conferred. “You win. I apologize.”
    She sighed. “Victory has never felt so sweet.”
    “Nor should it have done,” he said with arched brows. “I
assure you I don’t hand out apologies lightly.”
    “Or with such good humor?” she queried.
    “Never with such good humor.”
    Tillie was smiling, trying to think of something terribly
witty to say, when the butler arrived with an unsolicited tea service. Her
mother must have requested it, Tillie thought, which meant that she’d be back
soon, which meant that her time alone with Peter was drawing to a close.
    She should have paid attention to the keen disappointment
squeezing in her chest. Or to the fluttering in her belly that amplified every
time she looked at him. Because if she had, she wouldn’t have