Lily (Flower Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page B

“And my fault, not your son’s.”
    “See?” Rowan said with a grin of vindication. “’Tis not my fault Lord Randal cannot stay here.”
    “’Tis nobody’s fault.” Rand strode to the bed, his shoes making a sucking sound as he went. “I should probably be home badgering Kit anyway, if the house is to be finished this decade.” He reached for his luggage.
    “Do you not want to finish the translation?” Ford pleaded. “We’ll find a place—”
    “You’re welcome to stay with us,” Chrystabel suddenly offered. “We’ve more guest rooms than we know what to do with.”
    Lily’s mouth hung open. Why, they hardly knew Lord Randal Nesbitt.
    But apparently that made no difference to Mum.
    “You’ll be close to Lakefield,” she added. They were naught but a quarter hour’s ride down the road. “By tomorrow, perhaps this room will once again be habitable.”
    Violet looked around mournfully. “I doubt it.”
    Although Rand looked dubious, he set down the luggage. “If I sleep at Trentingham tonight, I could return tomorrow and help put the place to rights.”
    “A generous offer,” Ford said.

    Violet pushed up on her spectacles. “There is no need for Rand to wrestle with soggy carpeting.”
    “The boards underneath must be dried, lest they warp.”
    “We have servants to do that sort of thing.”
    “But if we had extra help—” Ford pressed.
    Violet cut him off with a laugh. “Rand can ‘help’ you in the bone-dry laboratory upstairs, huddled over that ancient alchemy text.”
    Her husband’s expression made clear that sounded good to him.
    And so it was settled. Rand would overnight at Trentingham and return in the morning. Lily supposed it was well done of Mum to offer the hospitality, but she hoped it didn’t mean she was trying to match Rand with Rose.
    That would ruin her sister’s plan.

Chapter Four
    Trentingham Manor was teeming with family and friends who had come to attend the twins’ baptism, so Rand’s addition to the mix was clearly little imposition.
    But he did appreciate Lady Trentingham’s kind invitation. She seemed a true gentlewoman.
    Although perhaps a bit overly solicitous.
    “Lily, dear,” she said as they walked into the linenfold-paneled dining room for supper, “I’d appreciate it if you’d sit beside Rand, since he’s not acquainted with our other guests.”
    Which would have made sense except that Rose had already planted herself on his other side.
    “Lord Randal,” she gushed, laying a hand on her chest theatrically, her fingertips flirtatiously grazing the skin revealed by her wide, low neckline. “What a pleasure to have you as a dining partner.”
    “Rand,” he corrected her, as he had countless times. So far as he was concerned, Lord was nothing more than a reminder of his disturbing roots. He liked to think of himself as a professor now, not a marquess’s son. “And the pleasure is mine,” he assured her, meaning it. This civilized supper was a lot more pleasurable than it would have been to ride home to all the hammering and sawing at his house in Oxford.

    “Cousin Rose.” A gentleman on her other side begged her attention, waving a bejeweled hand at the floral arrangements—enormous vases of colorful posies that graced each end of the table, flanking a towering centerpiece. “Have we you to thank for these beautiful works of art?”
    “Why, yes,” Rose said warmly. “I am pleased, cousin, that you’re enjoying them.” She turned back to Rand, fluttering her eyelashes in a way that tempted him to laugh. “Do you like the flowers, too?”
    “They’re lovely.” They were. She had an artist’s eye, a flair for color and balance. He turned to Lily. “Do you work with flowers as well?”
    “Oh, no. I’ve no skill with plants.”
    Rose shook her head, as though she felt sorry for her poor, talentless sister. “She cares only for her animals.”
    As if on cue, a sparrow flew into the room and landed smack on the table, right