Not Wicked Enough Read Online Free PDF Page B

been?”
     
    “Went to see the Misses Kirk. I am commanded to tell you hullo and ask you to come to tea as soon as you can. So, hullo from all the Kirks, Eugenia.”
     
    “Tea?” Ginny asked her brother. “The Kirks love my brother. I can’t imagine why.”
     
    “What?” Lord Nigel put a hand to his heart.
     
    “Perhaps his excellent waistcoats?” Lily said. The garment was a delicious shade of cream silk that perfectly complimented his sober blue coat.
     
    The vision of male beauty quirked his eyebrows in Lily’s direction. “You must be Miss Wellstone,” he said in the loveliest voice. No country accent, just the crisp syllables of an educated man who spent his time among the Ton.
     
    “I am,” she said. His coat fit precisely, and his cravat was neither too plain nor too lacy. She most definitely approved. And good heavens, he was lovely. She would have known him for Ginny’s brother anywhere.
     
    “Delightful to meet you at last, Miss Wellstone. Eugenia’s praised you to the skies every day for the last month.”
     
    “Good heavens, Ginny.” She raised her teacup but did not drink. “I fear I will only disappoint your brothers. Do eat that cracker. I can’t have another drink of this lovely tea until you do.”
     
    The cracker hovered near Ginny’s mouth. “I’ve not told anyone a thing that isn’t absolutely true.”
     
    “I die of thirst,” Lily said, inflecting her words with enough passion and suffering to break the hardest heart. “My throat…it is a veritable desert.”
     
    Ginny laughed and ate the cracker.
     
    Lord Nigel Hampton smiled fondly at his sister. “According to Eugenia, Miss Wellstone, you are perfection itself.”
     
    “She is,” Mountjoy said. “As you will soon discover for yourself.”
     
    Lily took a sip of her tea and found it acceptably sweet. How odd that she, who admired all things elegant, preferred the duke’s looks and manner to his brother’s. She said, “Lies, I’m afraid. Shame on you, Ginny.”
     
    “You traveled here from Exeter, am I right?”
     
    “Yes, Lord Nigel, I did.”
     
    “That’s a devilish long trip.” He bowed. “But I forget my manners. Nigel Hampton, at your service.” His blue eyes lingered on her face. “I’m Eugenia’s favorite brother in case she didn’t think to praise me.”
     
    Lily helped herself to more Brie. “She said something about a pest and bother, but I may be mistaken.”
     
    “Oh, Lily!” Ginny laughed, and it was gratifying to hear. “No, no. I said he was a perfect bother.” She smiled insincerely at him. “Never a pest, Nigel, dearest.”
     
    Having grown up the only child born to her parents, the interactions of siblings had always fascinated her. She loved to imagine what it would have been like to have a brother or sister.
     
    While Mountjoy snorted, Lord Nigel put his hand over his heart, partly turning toward Lily. “You wound me, sister. And you, Mountjoy, you don’t defend me? Your only brother?”
     
    “Delighted to meet you, Lord Nigel.” Lily gave him her most engaging smile, and Lord Nigel stared. Men often did. She had been told more than once that her smile was beyond lovely, though she’d never quite seen it herself. According to Greer, he’d fallen in love with her smile first. “This Brie is excellent. Tell Ginny she ought to have more.”
     
    “Eugenia, do have more of the Brie.” Lord Nigel remainedstanding. He couldn’t be much older than twenty-two. Despite his youth, he had a Town polish. Doubtless because when Mountjoy ascended to the title, Lord Nigel had been young enough to be sent to Eton and then to Oxford. Eugenia did fix herself another cracker and Brie.
     
    “My brother,” Mountjoy said dryly, “can be charming when he wishes to be.”
     
    Lily extended a hand, and Lord Nigel Hampton bent over it. “Delighted to meet you, Miss Wellstone,” he said. He held her gaze longer than was proper. Dear Lord. He was a boy. Beautiful as he