Miss Foster’s Folly Read Online Free PDF

been since you could first walk. I’ve taken to sitting quietly in the piazza with the other nonne and find I don’t even have the energy to bedevil the fishmonger any longer.
    He set the letter in his lap, remembering the day he’d first read those words. His stomach had sunk at the time. The feeling hadn’t improved since then.
    “That same letter from your grandmother, my lord?” James, his valet said.
    “The very one.”
    “You’ve read it several times. It always dims your spirits.”
    “It’s not like Harry to sit quietly for any length of time, not even in a piazza.”
    “Does she say she’s ill?” James asked.
    “Not in so many words,” he said. “But she’d never admit to anything like that.”
    He went back to reading.
    I do want to see my partner in crime, but when you come, I want you to bring a wife. I need to know you’re happy and, the Almighty willing, meet my great-grandchild—a new heir to the Derrington title and lands—before, well…
    “You see, here’s the problem.” Derrington slapped the paper. “She never exhorts the Deity. Never. Something’s wrong. I can feel it.”
    “She was in good health when you last saw her, wasn’t she?”
    “True, but at her age…even a mischievous spirit can’t keep her alive forever.”
    “Perhaps you should visit her and see how she is.”
    “I will, but I’ll honor her wish and bring the new Lady Derrington with me.”
    James paused in the act of brushing Derrington’s jacket. “So, you really have decided to marry.”
    “No one could force me to take a wife, but I could never deny Harry anything. Besides, at my age, most men in my station have an heir. It’s time I did the right thing—for the first time in my life.”
    James finished with the coat and set it aside. “As you say, sir.”
    Derrington went back to the letter.
    Now, you must remember your special circumstances, my darling child. You’ve inherited what some call the Winslow Curse. It skips a generation along the male line, bestowing on every other heir a rebellious nature that gives the rest of the family fits. I knew the moment that we named you Bump that you’d share my husband’s nature. That nature made us soul mates until the day he died.
    His few memories of his grandfather had faded over time, leaving only hazy impressions. He and Harry had adored each other and had given their Bump a special place within their love. His parents had thought his grandparents spoiled him. Successive generations of the Winslow family seldom understood each other as a result of the Curse. One marquis would do his duty—take his seat in the Lords, adore his sovereign, find a docile, adaptable wife, and have a son—only to have that child disrupt the dignity and tranquility his father had worked so hard to establish.
    The only hope for the son lay in finding exactly the right woman to tame his wildness by overwhelming him with her own rebellious nature. The two then spent the rest of their lives totally absorbed by each other, leaving everyone else around them in peace. Sadly, qualified women were few and far between. Over time, the requirements had assembled into a code of sorts, a list of characteristics the restless heir used while searching for a mate. When he found her, he settled down and produced another reasonable marquis to carry on the family duties.
    “What else does she say, sir?” James asked.
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Your grandmother,” the valet said. “There’s more, isn’t there?”
    “The usual she’s recited to me all my life. The requirements a woman must meet to be my wife.” He cleared his throat. “For one, she must stir my loins.”
    “Your loins, my lord?”
    “I’m not entirely comfortable with my grandmother discussing my loins, but yes. That one’s extremely important,” he said. Miss Juliet Foster stirred his loins. More than stirred them.
    “She must have a quick mind and a quicker wit,” he went on. “She must have money and status