Mischief by Moonlight Read Online Free PDF Page B

especially interested in hearing about the book she was reading, or her thoughts on formal gardens. But Edwina merely looked at her blankly.
    Finally exasperated, Josie discreetly suggested that Edwina consider Colin as a suitor. This, unaccountably, made Edwina laugh.
    â€œIvorwood, courting? I can’t imagine it. Can you see him telling a woman she’s the light of his life and he must have her?”
    Edwina had a point: that fatal reserve of Colin’s. Well, fatal if you wanted him to be effusive. Unfortunately, Edwina had the idea that a suitor must treat her like a princess.
    â€œWell, perhaps not those words. But he might say something nice.”
    â€œIf a man’s not going to say those words or something like them to me, then he’s not the man for me. But I think we all know marriage is not in my future anyway.”
    Josie frowned. “You can’t just give up on marriage because Mr. Perriwell behaved badly.”
    Edwina’s eyes darkened at the mention of the wealthy suitor their father had produced six years ago. Mr. Perriwell and Edwina had seemed to really like each other, and it had looked as though an engagement were imminent. But then their father had gotten sick with the illness that killed him, and Mr. Perriwell had stopped visiting. They heard later he’d married.
    â€œI don’t want to talk about this,” Edwina said, a husky note in her voice.
    â€œBut—you have to. I mean”—Josie lowered her voice—“at Jasmine House means dancing attendance on Mama while she refuses to leave the divan. And I know there will be a nice portion for each of us, but everything else will belong to Lawrence. After Mama…do you really mean just to live here with him and be a spinster aunt?”
    Edwina shrugged dispiritedly. “I don’t like to think too far into the future.”
    Edwina was in other ways such a practical person—she kept all the household accounts, for goodness’ sake—that her depressed view of her future made no sense.
    â€œAnyway, life is unpredictable,” she continued. “Who says I won’t perish before Mama?”
    Josie rolled her eyes. “Now you’re just being dramatic. But you can’t give up on finding a husband before you’ve even begun. And wanting a fantasy man to sweep you off your feet is just another way of ensuring you don’t risk your heart with a real man.”
    â€œJosie,” Edwina said fiercely, “there’s no point. I am nice to look at, but that’s it. Even Papa told me I’d have to rely on my beauty, that I didn’t have anything else to recommend me.”
    Josie remembered how their father had sometimes said to Edwina, You’ve got no spirit, gel, not like your sister. Edwina had been prone to tears as a girl, and afraid of dogs and horses, which had annoyed their father—a man who’d valued boldness so much that he’d given his daughters mannish names. But he’d said so many ridiculous things, Josie had early on stopped paying attention—why hadn’t Edwina?
    â€œIt was wrong of him to say that—surely you see that? Papa said all sorts of wrong things.”
    A shadow flitted across Edwina’s face, making her look surprisingly vulnerable. “Well, I certainly didn’t have enough charms to keep Mr. Perriwell’s attention.”
    â€œThat’s ancient history. Forget about it.” Josie grabbed her hand and squeezed it encouragingly. “You do like Colin, don’t you?”
    â€œYes, of course I do,” Edwina said with a sigh. “He’s a lovely man. Smart and witty, and quite nice to look at.”
    So Edwina could see his virtues.
    â€œBut it’s ridiculous, the idea of him courting me,” she continued.
    Only because you’re not ready to embrace something good for yourself , Josie thought. But if only Colin might court Edwina in the right way, who knew what