Miss Lindel's Love Read Online Free PDF

handled their skirts and shawls filled Maris with an envy that, alas, failed to inspire emulation. She never seemed able to drift, float, or glide. Her impatience to be up and doing every day seemed to communicate itself through her feet.
    Taking in the sights, as every young visitor must, she whisked through museums and fine homes. While the Paladins paused in front of the latest admired work, Maris would race through galleries, absorbing impressions at a furious pace. Not even Westminster Abbey could slow her down. But when she entered St. Paul’s, something about the grandeur made her laugh aloud for sheer pleasure.
    “Hush,” Mrs. Paladin said, shocked. Maris, noticing a few heads turning her way, turned from contemplation of the enormous gilded dome to the glossy paving of marble at her feet.
    “I beg your pardon, ma’am,” she murmured.
    “So I should think,” Mrs. Paladin retorted. “What could there be in this magnificent edifice to make you laugh?”
    “Nothing. Only...” She glanced up to find Mrs. Paladin gazing at her, one thin brow raised. There was but little kindness to be found on those aristocratic features at the best of times, but she seemed to take Maris’s reaction to Wren’s work as a personal affront. “Nothing at all, ma’am,” she repeated.
    Mrs. Paladin sniffed. “Certainly not. Now do try to stay with us, Maris. You are too impetuous. You kept us waiting quite fifteen minutes at Westminster Abbey.”
    “I was looking at the Grand Pavement,” Maris said, the memory of all that swirling marble mosaic making her smile again.
    “Hardly reason enough to keep your hostess waiting.”
    “Mother,” Lilah said. “Isn’t that Mrs. Armitage over by the choir stalls?”
    “No,” Mrs. Paladin said, staring shortsightedly down the huge nave. “Or is it? Yes, I believe it is. Come along, Maris. We shall introduce you.”
    Mrs. Armitage was gracious yet a line between her brows seemed to say that she was not as happy to see the Paladins as she claimed. She unbent a trifle more when introduced to Maris. “Your first visit to London, Miss Lindel?”
    “Yes,ma’am,” Maris said, glad to know she need not blush for her appearance. She had chosen to wear one of her new day dresses.
    “But you have some acquaintance in town?”
    “Very little, except for the Paladins,” she answered. “My mother knows a few people, I believe.”
    “Ah, your mother is with you? I shall look forward to meeting her.”
    “Youare very kind, ma’am.” A flash of gold in a sudden beam of sunlight caught her eyes and she looked past the two young men strolling by to see what it might be. Mrs. Armitage followed the direction of her glance and her smile grew a little warmer.
    “Not at all. It was not so long ago that I too was a young girl making my first appearance. You are more fortunate than I. There was a passion for dark girls when I first came. Blondes are all the fashion this year, but beauty is always a passport to fortune.” Mrs. Armitage seemed to think she was offering Maris a compliment, though Maris herself was not certain where it lay. She thanked her anyway.
    The other women began to discuss persons they knew in common—who was in town, who had not yet arrived, and who would not be making their appearance this Season and why. From there, it was an easy step down to scandals, old and new. Maris wanted to be off exploring the architecture. She’d heard one could go onto the roof and gain an unparalleled view of the city. She tried to be patient, perhaps unsuccessfully.
    Mrs. Armitage turned to her with an understanding gleam in her eye. “You’ll soon discover the faces to go with these names, Miss Lindel.”
    “Oh, it’s all most interesting, ma’am.”
    “But you are afire to look about you, are you not?”
    Maris realized her lack of interest in the conversation must have been more apparent than she’d believed. “It’s only that I’ve never seen anything like it before,” she