Pure Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

you."
    "I always eat my vegetables, Mrs. O," Lucie cheerfully said, looking angelic in pink organza.
    "Humpf… or that dog at your feet does," the housekeeper muttered, glancing at the large otter hound sprawled at the foot of Lucie's chair.
    "Caesar only likes meat."
    "He likes anything eatable, raw or cooked, but eat the peas at least before your dessert," Mrs. O'Brien said with a small sigh, giving up the struggle.
    "I'll remind Lucie to eat her vegetables, Mrs. O," Flora interjected, on a familiar footing with the housekeeper after visiting in the kitchen with Lucie several times in the last two days. "And I'll see that Caesar stays under the table during the meal."
    "Thank you, Miss Flora," the housekeeper said with a grateful smile. "It's a pleasure to have a real lady in the house. Now, Lucie, you mind Miss Flora. And we have a fine claret for you, my lord," she added, turning her smile on George Bonham. "From Adam's special stock. Come, now, dinner is informal now that she—well… on the count's orders," she quickly altered, "so please eat while the food is still warm." And bustling like a mother hen, she saw them into the dining room.
     
    Dinner was an extravagant affair, decidedly not informal in terms of variety and elegance but casually served, with Lucie and the servants gossiping throughout the meal. The young girl was obviously everyone's pet, though treated in a curiously adult way. Without playmates her own age, Flora thought, it was natural the staff should take the place of friends for Lucie. And during dinner Flora heard a number of anecdotes in which Adam figured

prominently, so by meal's end she knew several more revealing fragments of a decidedly remarkable man.
    He cooked, Flora heard. He made a perfect Lady Baltimore cake—an American recipe, apparently—no one surpassed his wild grape jam, and his biscuits were of unequaled lightness—for which skilled hands were a requisite, everyone agreed. That didn't surprise her, she decided, recalling the sensitive touch of his hands. And he played the piano. Which accounted for the well-used look of the Bosendorfer in the drawing room and the disorganized stack of music on its top. He had an unrivaled reputation for training horses in the Absarokee style, where horse and rider were friends rather than adversaries. He played a vicious game of croquet, dressed a baby doll with finesse, and could shoot the eye out of a fly at fifty yards. Before long Flora realized that not only was Lucie adored by the staff, but her father was as well. She wasn't surprised. He had an extraordinary appeal.
    After Lucie was seen off to the nursery to prepare for bedtime, Flora and her father relaxed on the veranda. Rocking gently in deep-seated wicker rocking chairs cushioned and sculpted to offer maximum comfort, they enjoyed Adam's best cognac and a spectacular twilight sky. Although the sun had set, a warm golden haze still lightened the horizon, bathing the plains to the east in a tawny glow. A palpable peace as unclouded as the gilded landscape enveloped the shadowed veranda.
    "Are you happy?" the earl softly asked.
    "Very much," Flora replied, her head resting against the chair back, her eyes half-shut.
    "I worry, you know."
    Flora's eyes opened, and she turned her head slightly so that her gaze rested on her father seated on the other side of the table separating them. "You needn't worry, Papa. I'm vastly content."
    "You probably should be in London with your friends, not out in the wilds again with me."
    "You're my dearest friend and I
like
the wilds. Don't bring up those old conventional arguments again. I find

society so much less interesting than our studies. You've spent your life researching Blumenbach's theory of the biological equality of all peoples and given me the opportunity to observe and document cultures all over the world. It's exciting, Papa, and enlightening, and so much more fascinating than devoting my life to finding a husband, as every society