Provocative in Pearls Read Online Free PDF Page A

clothes on your back.”
    She eyed him from head to toe, taking his measure. Discouragement tinged her determination, but did not defeat it.
    “I expect that you have the strength to force me into that carriage when it comes. So be it. In the meantime, I will retire to the places in this home where I have enjoyed a rare peace, and await your forcible exercise of your rights.”

Chapter Four
    T he new hybrid pelargonium looked a little peaked. A line of yellow edged two of its leaves.
    “It has had too much sun. You must promise me to move it back in the afternoons until late September,” Verity said to Celia. “New hybrids are such unknowns in these things.”
    “I will remember to tell Daphne.”
    They continued their stroll down the aisle between the tables that held a variety of potted plants and Verity’s horticultural experiments.
    It was either luck or fate’s plan that it had been Daphne who came upon her that day, and who eventually offered a home with this greenhouse attached. Although she had always enjoyed flowers, she had not gardened until arriving here. Now she did so with a passion, and was happiest either outside or in here, checking her plants and watching the miracle of growth day by day.
    “Lord Sebastian was trying to convince Hawkeswell to avoid acting in haste when I passed the front sitting room,” Celia said.
    “I doubt that Lord Sebastian will have much success. Nor, if it comes to it, will he stand against Hawkeswell on my behalf. I am about to lose any freedom I hoped to have, and I may never see this home again.”
    “You will convince Hawkeswell to let you come visit us, as Audrianna did with Sebastian.”
    “Hawkeswell is an earl, and one who is proud of his privileges and heritage. He married down, but he will not allow me to keep what I know, because it will reflect on him. You taught me these things about the highborn, Celia, so do not put a pretty face on it now to make me feel better. You and I both know that man will not allow me to visit you, or anyone else from my past.”
    Even worse for these dear friendships, she suspected, was that her time in this house had been an insult to him, and would now embarrass him badly. He blamed Daphne for harboring her, even though Daphne was ignorant.
    She wondered what Lord Hawkeswell would say or think if he knew about that initial meeting along the Thames between Daphne and herself.
    The day had turned cool by the time the wagon on which she had begged a ride from Surrey had crossed the bridge. She had ridden long enough for her shock to pass and her anger to abate, and she had formed a simple plan. She would snag bits of her veil and dress in the brush along the river, and trust the authorities would take both as evidence of her death. That would keep anyone from searching too hard for her.
    She had made quick work of both, and was gazing into the river when a gig began to pass. A lovely woman, perhaps twenty-five years old and pale as moonlight, drove it. The gig stopped for some reason.
    Perhaps Daphne had sensed the discouragement that washed her after that veil’s ends sank in the water. How simple, really, to escape all guilt and duty and indignity by drifting down after them.
    She had known so little happiness after her father died, and felt so little love. Had she grown up that way, she might have suffered it better, but her childhood had been so happy that the contrast only made the last few years harder to bear.
    Bertram’s treachery had been the final insult in many, the last abuse after years of it. She did not remember him being so cruel when she was younger, and her father would not have named him guardian if he had revealed himself to be so. Perhaps Nancy had changed him, or encouraged the darkness in his character that would have been better battled if he’d married a different woman.
    Nancy had social ambitions, and now Bertram did too. And she, Verity, had been the perfect means to attain what they sought. Dangle an