Seduction In Silk: A Novel of the Malloren World (Malloran) Read Online Free PDF Page A

charms enough if you cared to use them. You’re kind and generous. Often too much so, but that too pleases some.”
    “With a temper as wild as my father’s when stirred.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with a temper when faced with injustice.”
    “Injustice is part of marriage when a husband has all the power, so I’d likely murder any man unwise enough to wed me. I’m a free woman! I have no man to dictate to me. Why should I change that?”
    Claris heard panic in her rising voice and strove to calm herself. “The Mad Rector’s daughter” could easily be misunderstood as “the rector’s mad daughter.”
    Athena picked a sprig of rosemary and laid it on the flowers in Claris’s basket. “For its soothing powers, child. Clearly I spoke too soon, but you must look to your future. The boys will go away to school, and I . . . Enough of this. I’m off to deliver a tonic to Miss Trueby. I may linger to chat, for she has amusing wisdom for a villager.”
    “Don’t tell her fortune,” Claris implored. “We need no more talk of you being a witch!”
    Athena ignored her.
    She stalked away toward the side path that led to the lane, tall and straight in her plain black gown, a black three-cornered hat on the white cap on her dark hair. Why would a woman who’d fled a cruel husband and lived an adventurous life become cautious now?
    Athena’s black cat, Yatta, stirred, stretched, and looked as if he would follow, but then he returned to rub against Claris’s ankle.
    “Why can’t you teach her sense?” Claris asked, bending to stroke him.
    Somewhere in her adventures Athena had learned herbal lore, and as the previous tenant, Lizzie Hubble, had grown many herbs, she was plying that trade. She took payment in kind from the local people but went to market in Guildford once a month to earn money. The money was useful and her creams and potions seemed effective, but even the grateful villagers talked of her being a witch. They didn’t really mean it, but Claris knew country ways. If a disaster happened, if animals died in numbers or a barn burned down, they’d look for someone to blame.
    The new rector, Cudlingston, regarded Athena with suspicion, egged on by the local doctor, whose trade she’d usurped.
    Claris was grateful to her grandmother, but she could be a difficult woman, especially if she was going to try to push Claris into marriage. Why on earth would she do that? She remembered the words
And I . . .
And I what?
    Must leave here soon? Did Athena think Claris needed a man to take care of her before she could leave?
    As she approached the back door to the cottage, Claris wondered how Athena could leave. She seemed to have no money other than her herbal earnings. Surely she wasn’t hoping Claris would marry them all into a more comfortable life. That would be a sacrifice too far!
    Claris went inside and put the basket on the kitchen table. Perhaps she thumped it down, for Ellie Gable asked, “What’s the matter, dearie?”
    Ellie had arrived with Athena, having been her companion from her early days. Claris had never sorted out whether Ellie had been her grandmother’s lady’s maid or a housemaid or even simply a friend, but here, despite her age, she seemed willing to be a maid of all work.
    She was a short, wiry woman, with frothy white curls and a face creased by frequent smiles. She seemed to have endless energy. Claris hardly ever saw her sit down, and if she did, she’d have work in her hands.
    At the moment she was standing at one end of the table, rubbing something smelly into rabbit skins. The twins had snared three rabbits yesterday, so there’d be rabbit stew today and fur for the winter, but Claris could do without the smell.
    If Athena went, Ellie would go too, and that would be a blow. She’d miss Ellie’s hard work, but she’d miss her generous nature more, and her sensible advice.
    “She told me to marry, would you believe?”
    “Athena? Marry who?”
    “Anyone.”
    Ellie