Provocative in Pearls Read Online Free PDF Page B

up an impoverished aristocrat’s privilege. And I need to discover just what Bertram did to harm the people I love most, and whether I can rectify his cruelty.” She blinked back tears. “Perhaps it has all been only a child’s dream, but it has sustained me for two years.”
    Celia leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “I understand, my dear Lizzie. Everyone here has secrets and dreams, but we never guessed yours were so big. I do not doubt that you laid great and important plans for yourself while you hid and waited and worked quietly with these flowers. However, you may have to change them now.”
    “I fear that you are correct. Yet, I think that I may still convince him that being done with me is his best choice.”
    “He married for money. Settle that well with him, and you may yet have all you want.”
    Verity hoped so. However, even if Hawkeswell would not release her, she could at least move in the world again, in ways denied her while she hid these two years. She could try to have success in some of those plans. She tried to take consolation in that, but her heart still carried thick dread.
    “I think that you should tell Daphne that this lemon tree graft has not succeeded, Celia. It was worth our experiment, but we have not seen the strength needed to continue with it.” She moved to an orange tree. “Hold out your apron and let me pick some. We can bring them to Mrs. Hill and she can use them in the dinner sauce.”
    She plucked three oranges.
    “I expect that hired carriage will be here soon,” Celia said softly. “Will you really make him carry you out?”
    Anticipation of that carriage had cast a pall over their time together. There had been much of the mood of a death watch in this stroll through the greenhouse. “Making him force me out may be too much drama for little purpose, other than to make a point that I trust I have already made.”
    “I fear if you do it, Daphne will train her pistol on him. She is most distressed. She thinks that you are afraid of him, and have cause to be. She has seen that before, you see.”
    Hearing about Daphne’s instincts made Verity’s subtle nausea churn more intensely. She also wondered if there might be cause to fear Hawkeswell and his temper, although he had kept it in check during their private meeting today. “I will leave with him peacefully. I do not want trouble for Daphne. I will go and tell her that.”
    Celia turned her head to the house, and its windows that were visible through the greenhouse’s glass. “You can tell her now. She is coming, with Audrianna.”
    Daphne and Audrianna soon entered the greenhouse. They walked with purpose toward Verity.
    “Lizzie, you must hear our plan,” Audrianna announced. “Sebastian thinks Hawkeswell will be agreeable, if you are too.”
     
     
    V erity poked her little auger around the base of the potted citrus trees, to aerate their soil.
    She heard the door open at the end of the corridor that connected the greenhouse to the back sitting room. Then boot steps. Hawkeswell had come to propose the plan that had been concocted by her friends.
    It did not represent salvation, but only a period of purgatory to give her time to accept her fate. It was the best anyone could do, so of course she had agreed. She hoped to modify the terms just a bit, however.
    The boots stopped nearby and she had to acknowledge him. Wonderful eyes, as all the women noticed. Had those eyes been dull or shallow, the color would not mesmerize, but they reflected so much instead. Intelligence and confidence and, on better days, humor, and perhaps some of the skill to which Celia alluded. There also showed a touch of the arrogance that was natural to a man of his birth and appearance.
    She was a normal woman, and not immune to those eyes and that face. He had intimidated her two years ago when, almost broken by Bertram’s treatment, she had all but cowered in this earl’s presence.
    Such as she did not marry such as he. Not because