Patricia Veryan - [Sanguinet Saga 10] - Lanterns Read Online Free PDF Page B

answer one for today, and I shall ask you another when I
call to take you riding tomorrow morning, and another the next day, and
so on."
    He was lying on his side, head propped on one elbow, long legs
stretched out, all lithe grace. With that warm smile lurking in his
blue eyes, he seemed very sincere, but was she really the most
fascinating and lovely lady he had ever met? She doubted it, but it was
nice to hear and it was some time since any gentleman had told her such
things. She had ceased to be fascinating and lovely, it appeared, when
Papa ceased to be a wealthy man. The handsome Mr. Coville was an
accomplished flirt, but he made her feel pretty and desirable again,
and she would have been less of a woman not to enjoy his attentions.
She said lightly, "You surprise me, sir! I had not supposed that you
and your papa were in the district for a long stay."
    He sighed. "Sadly, that is true. But I will be riding this way
as often as I can, regardless of our present—problems. Still, perhaps
we should condense my list a little. Let us have the first and the
last. What are your likes—your especial likes—and what do you think of
Lanterns?"
    "Hmm," she said, wrinkling her brow. "My first especial
'like,' of course, is my family. I think you've not met my two
brothers, Eric and Arnold, for Eric stays at Cambridge, and Arnold has
just left us to spend the rest of the summer with friends. As for your
second question, I do not know Lanterns. I've seen it, of course, but
it looks so big and gloomy, and as if it might tumble down the cliffs
at any moment."
    "Part of the moat has already done so. Have you never gone
there?"
    "Goodness, no! The ghost stories might just be true, and I
would purely dislike to meet one."
    "Should you? I'd love it! But say truth now. You must have
some curiosity. I'd thought everyone in the county had poked about down
there. Haven't you seen any treasure hunters?"
    "No! Is there supposed to be buried treasure, then? How
exciting! Do tell me. I'd not heard that tale."
    "You've not missed anything worthwhile, for it is so much
fustian. If there were a whisper of truth to the legend the treasure
would have been found ages ago. That's how old it is. Some ancestor of
my step-mama is supposed to have brought it back from the Crusades."
    "What, exactly? A chest full of gems? I'd think that would be
difficult to stow away. Especially for so long a time."
    "I agree. No, it's supposed to be a picture. Something that
belonged to—"
    "Ah!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands in triumph. "Excuse
me, but I do remember! It is called
The Sigh of Saladin,
no?"
    "Jolly good. Not a large piece of art, so they say. But all
worked in gold and gems. Worth the proverbial king's ransom."
    "No wonder everyone tried to find it. Why was it called
The
Sigh of Saladin?"
    "Lord knows. If my rascally step-brother ever shows his nose
hereabouts, you can ask him. He likely knows all about it, since it was
his ancestor who won the thing."
    Marietta said, "Perhaps we should start for home, Mr. Coville.
I'm afraid my little brother will be thinking I have quite forgotten
about him."
    He sighed. "Why ever is it, I wonder, that beautiful young
ladies are always overly endowed with pestiferous little brothers… !"
    "It sounds as though you have suffered from that restraint
very often, sir," she said merrily. "But I promise you I would not for
one instant be without my own little brother, although—" She paused,
tilting her head as, faint with distance, a church bell sent out its
mellow announcement.
"Three?"
Startled, her eyes
opened wide. "No, surely it cannot be?"
    He pulled out his pocket watch, and nodded. "It is. You have
made the moments fly past. But the sun won't go down for hours yet. We
still have time to ride as far as the forest and—"
    "No! I must go back at once. I'd not dreamed we had been out
so long. And only look, the sky is beginning to be hazy. If fog rolls
in from the sea—oh, dear! I will be properly in Arthur's