Twelfth Night Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

visit to the steaming, insanely hectic kitchen, where pots and cauldrons bubbled on the range and a pot boy sat turning a suckling pig on a spit over the open fire, and she considered her duty done. She stepped back into the expanse of the hall, cool despite the massive yule log burning in a fireplace big enough to roast an ox, and took a moment to examine her reflection in the gilt-framed mirror beside the door. Her cheeks were a little flushed from theheat in the kitchen, but other than that, everything seemed to be in order. She went to the library, nodding her thanks to the footman, who hurried to open the double doors for her.
    “Ah, there you are, Harriet. Everything running smoothly in our little realm?” Lionel greeted her with a smile. The Earl rose to his feet and bowed. The children, sitting side-by-side on an ottoman at their grandfather’s feet, burst into speech before she had time to respond to the Duke.
    “Grandfather says we can join the Boxing Day hunt, Harry. Only we have to have Judd with us, and he’ll bring us back at lunchtime. Grandfather says we’re not old enough to stay out all day, but we are, aren’t we, Harry?”
    “Sherry, Lady Harriet, or Madeira? You may need fortification before you answer.” The Earl had moved to the decanters on the sideboard. He was smiling, and his eyes looked quite different. Instead of the mocking gleam she had seen before, the glint of amusement seemed purely one of enjoyment, and there was a sparkle to their dark depths that she warmed to despite herself.
    “Sherry, thank you.” She sat down on a sofa, thinking that the Earl seemed to be very much at home, dispensinghis host’s hospitality as easily as her brother would have done. She glanced at her grandfather, who showed no signs of annoyance at this presumption, instead holding out his own glass for a refill.
    “We can, can’t we, Harry?” Tom prompted, bringing her back to the matter in hand.
    “If the Duke says you may go out for half a day, then you may go out for half a day,” Harriet stated, taking her sherry from the Earl with a polite nod of acknowledgment. “You will be sufficiently fatigued by lunchtime to be glad to come home to a hot bath, I promise you.”
    “Harry,” they chorused, their expressions showing mingled disbelief and shock at their sister’s betrayal.
    She laughed at their indignation, aware of the Earl’s open amusement. “You’ll see, I promise you.”
    “Nick would’ve let us,” Grace said, her voice rather small.
    “Yes,” her brother chimed in. “Nick would have let us ride with him.”
    “If you’ll accept me as a substitute for your brother, I will undertake to ensure that you miss none of the excitement in the morning.” Julius bent down a little to the twins. “If you stay with me for the first hour, we’ll take every suitable fence in the field. If your sisteragrees, of course.” He straightened, turning his gaze again on Harriet with a conspiratorial smile. “What d’you think, Lady Harriet? Shall we try the fences as a family? Your brother told me of your fondness for the hunt.”
    Harriet had decided to preserve her own cover by appearing to know nothing at all about the Earl. She said with credible surprise, “You were acquainted with Nicholas, sir?”
    “Yes, indeed. Did you not know?” He sounded surprised, shooting a questioning glance at the Duke.
    “Oh, surely I told you, Harriet,” Lionel said. “Nick brought Lord Marbury to Charlbury several years ago, and they were frequent visitors until the damned war took Nicholas away. The Earl has a standing invitation to visit whenever he wishes, and I issued a most pressing invitation that he join us for Christmas.”
    “You didn’t tell me, sir,” she responded, even as she thought, Two years. Nick had been bringing Marbury to Charlbury for two years and never said a word about him. She thought she had known most of her brother’s close friends.
    She smiled easily. “I daresay it