The Spinster and the Rake Read Online Free PDF

you take me down a peg or two than anyone else. You always make such sense when you do, and don’t make a person feel like a loathsome worm or the most ungrateful creature alive. Bertie agrees with me—we both think you’re a great gun.”
    Gillian was not impervious to flattery, but she had a goal in mind and refused to be distracted. “I wanted to ask you about Liam Blackstone.”
    Felicity’s creamy complexion turned a deep rose that was scarcely less attractive. “Who told you?” she demanded in a strangled tone.
    “I hardly think that matters,” Gillian said gently.
    “It does to me. I want to know who it is that I can’t trust. Was it that little skunk Bertie? I should have known he’d rat on me the moment my back was turned.”
    “No, it wasn’t Bertie. And I thought, dear Felicity, that you trusted me. ” The reproof was delivered in very gentle tones, but had the effect of making the younger girl look up at her aunt, completely stricken.
    “Of course I trust you, Gilly. But I know how Papa terrorizes you, and I thought you would be better off not knowing. That way you wouldn’t have to lie for me and feel miserable doing it.”
    “Very sacrificing of you, my dear,” Gilly said with only the hint of a smile. “And you also remembered how I turn bright red when I lie, so that my brother knows immediately that something is up.”
    “That too,” Felicity admitted, unabashed. “It must have been Marjorie who told you. She thinks just because she’s been my maid forever she can interfere in my life. Well, she can’t.”
    Gillian didn’t trouble to deny it. “Marjorie was only worried about you, Felicity. As I am. Didn’t your father order you not to see Mr. Blackstone again?”
    “Yes.”
    “Then, though I can’t say I’m surprised at your disobeying him, I am surprised at Liam Blackstone’s being so unprincipled as to encourage you behind your father’s back.”
    “He didn’t!” Felicity shot back. “He hasn’t encouraged me, not one tiny bit. He’s always telling me to go away. He just doesn’t mind that I go down to his mission whenever I can, and help him.”
    “To Stepney?” Gillian questioned faintly. “Do you realize how dangerous it is?”
    “I realize it better than you, GiIly. And I don’t mind. If Liam has chosen the poorest, dirtiest slum in London for his work, then there is nothing I’d rather do than help him. He lets me, sometimes. I’ve helped ladle out the soup for those poor unfortunates, and I’ve been trying to get Mrs Buddles to teach me how to cook. I am determined to be worthy of him, Gilly. And I will be.”
    Her aunt stared at her usually flighty young niece, and was touched. “You still love him.” It was a statement, not a question.
    “More than ever.” There was a dignity about her, despite her extreme youth. “It’s been three years since we met, nine months since Papa forbade me to see him. And every time I see him I love him more. I’m going to marry him, Gilly. I’m not going to let my family ruin my life as they did yours.”
    “My family did not ruin my life,” Gillian said calmly.
    “You spend your life watching other people’s children,” Felicity said cruelly.
    “It was my choice.”
    Felicity eyed her aunt speculatively. “I don’t know that I quite believe you,” she said frankly. “But I do know that that sort of life is not for me. Neither is being married to a vicious lecher like Uncle Sinford, or a dull stick like Uncle Talmadge.”
    “I don’t think either of them offered for you, my dear,” Gilly pointed out with a trace of amusement.
    “You know perfectly well what I mean. They’re just the sort Redfern women marry. I would rather be a spinster than marry someone like that, and I would most of all prefer to marry Liam. If I could only persuade him.” She wrinkled her fair brow as she pondered her problem, and Gillian resisted the impulse to reach out and smooth the cares away.
    “Well, you will have to be