One Moonlit Night (Moonlight Square: A Prequel Novella) Read Online Free PDF Page A

position to assist Her Ladyship down the steps, Trinny followed, rather wishing she could’ve told her friend about the kiss she had shared with Lord Roland less than a fortnight ago.
    But it was probably best to be discreet. Her friend did tend to be a little straitlaced, and Trinny wasn’t sure what Felicity might think of her for letting him do that to her. She did not wish to alienate a comrade now that she had just found her way back into her sisters’ graces.
    For, oh, yes, to her own surprise, and after much brooding on the matter, Trinny had decided to take the rakehell’s advice. As she followed her friend out of the ballroom, she mentally reviewed how it had all unfolded…
    A couple of days after the kiss, she had called her parents together into the drawing room to have the talk with them, while her sisters eavesdropped outside the closed door.
    “Ahem. Mama, Papa: I have made a decision,” she had said calmly and with great composure. She had then lifted up the prop she had prepared for the demonstration.
    A neat white spinster’s cap.
    She had adorned it herself with a fringe of white eyelet and a small blue ribbon tied around the crown. “Some women clearly are not meant to be married,” she had told them. “And I cannot stand in the way of my sister’s happiness anymore. So I’m afraid you must pardon me from the so-called necessity of finding a husband. I do not wish to marry,” she had declared. “I will undertake to pay you back slowly for the expenses I incurred with my unnecessary Seasons, for I do not wish to be a burden on the family, either now or in the future.”
    Mama’s mouth was already hanging open, but Papa had blustered at once that she was nothing of the kind. Trinny had rushed on before she lost her nerve. “I have devised a simple and ladylike way to bolster my own income henceforth. I will discreetly sell the hats I design to a few of the better milliner’s shops.”
    Mama had covered her mouth in horror; Papa’s jaw had now dropped, too.
    Trinny had quickly hastened on to conclude her explanation. “You know I’m very fond of fashioning hats for my own amusement. Don’t worry, no one need find out that I’m selling them. Well, unless they become all the rage, then we can tell!”
    Of course, not everyone appreciated her style of millinery.
    “The important thing is, my dear esteemed parents, I wish to be an independent lady, free of husbands. I do not fear this fate. I do not scorn it. I embrace it happily.”
    Just like Sweet Cheeks had said.
    “Others may look askance on me in Society, but I care not. I would rather live alone than be locked in a cage with someone I don’t love. And you see, this will benefit the both of you,” she hastened to point out. “Because this way, I’ll be here to take care of you when you’re old.”
    “Oh, Trinny,” Mama had uttered in shock at last, her face resembling the theatre mask of tragedy. “I’m a failure as a mother.”
    “No, you should be happy for me, Mama!” Trinny had scolded with a cheerful smile. “ I’m happy! This is so much better for me, please. I am tired of being told in so many words by all these stupid men that I’m not worth choosing. That I am not worth loving. I know this to be false. So I’m choosing myself! And so…”
    With a humorous air of great ceremony, she had donned the cute spinster’s cap and lifted her chin proudly.
    “Isn’t it pretty?”
    Then Mama fainted.
    Not that it was terribly unusual for her to do so. Sometimes the Glendon girls even suspected that she faked it for effect.
    As for Papa, while Trinny waited with a heart-pounding gulp, to see if she had her sire’s permission, a broad, proud smile had slowly spread across the earl’s face.
    He had a twinkle of amusement in his eyes, as though he knew something she had not yet grasped. The earl had glanced at his countess, and seeing she had swooned back safely onto the couch, he had stood up, walked over and taken