The Ballad of Gregoire Darcy Read Online Free PDF Page A

” Dr. Maddox said. “ Yes . God, yes.”
    â€œUnhappy memories, Dr. Maddox?” Mr. Hurst said with a smile.
    â€œI remember leaving for work in the evening with both of them screaming, and then returning in the morning to the same state of affairs.”
    â€œBut you weren’t there at night!” Caroline said indignantly. “You had somewhere else to be!”
    â€œOh, hush, Caroline,” Louisa said. “Whenever you complained about Charles, Mama would remind you that you were the loudest of all of us as an infant.”
    Caroline Maddox stared down her sister as her husband covered his mouth with his napkin to prevent her seeing his expression. “I don’t recall any such nonsense.”
    â€œYou were four—how would you? But I remember it.”
    Mr. Hurst burst out laughing, which was a godsend. Most of the rest of the room did the same as Caroline silently fumed but would not, even after much prodding, admit to it.

    â€œIt’s so hot out,” Georgiana Bingley said, looking up at the sky. “Why is the water so cold?”
    Princess Nadezhda Maddox shook her head. “The ocean is always cold. Don’t be a baby.” She had already waded in ahead of her niece, holding up her kimono to her knees so her bare feet could soak in the salt water. “What would your father say?”
    â€œThat it’s not proper for a girl to play in the ocean without a suitable bathing costume?”
    â€œWell, good that he’s in the Orient, then, and not here to say that,” Nadezhda said. Her English was very good, and she retained a charming Romanian accent. “Now come in.You get used to it.”
    â€œMy dress will be all messy!”
    â€œGeorgiana Bingley!” her aunt said with mock indignation. “When have you ever cared about a dress being dirty?”
    Georgie could offer no opposition, so she stepped out of her sandals and splashed into the water, which went up to her knees much quicker than it had for Nadezhda. “It’s rocky.”
    â€œNot if you know where to step. Look down and see how beautiful the water is,” Nadezhda said, and Georgie did so. “The first time I ever saw the ocean was in Russia, on the coast. The port was half frozen and the water was so dark it wasn’t blue. It was almost black. Not like this.” She kicked at the water, splashing Georgie, who cried out and then laughed. “The second time I saw the ocean from land was when I came to the docks at the filthy Thames. Look how beautiful this is.” All around them was green—the rocky coast and the rich shades of the Irish fields. It seemed to color the water an odd and perfect shade of blue.
    â€œWill yeh be needin’ anyt’in’ else, Yer Highness?” called O’Brien, their coachman, as he doffed his dirty cap. “’Sides from da towels and da tea.”
    â€œNo, thank you.”
    He donned his cap and walked off, leaving them alone on the shore. Technically, he was their bodyguard, but Nadezhda’s sword was intimidation enough, especially when she walked as though
she knew how to use it, instead of being an aristocrat carrying a sign of her office. She was a samurai’s wife, and she took that as seriously as her husband did. No one questioned her odd dress when they heard her accent—how were they to know the difference between a Hungarian princess dressed as a Hungarian and a Hungarian princess dressed as a Japanese?
    Nadezhda and Georgie eventually tired of standing in the water and played on the shore. Nadezhda set up a branch in the sand as a target and had Georgiana hurl coins at it. Few of them hit their target. “Some did,” Nadezhda said encouragingly, before taking down the makeshift tree with one good flip of the wrist to its lower trunk. Georgie picked up all the coins, large circles with pointed edges and a hole in the center, and Nadezhda put them back on the string in