A Notorious Ruin by Carolyn Jewel

Author:Carolyn Jewel [Jewel, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Historical romance, Regency
ISBN: 9781937823313
Publisher: cjewel Books
Published: 2014-09-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

Lucy linked arms with her sister again and got them strolling in the direction of Captain Niall and the others. “I haven’t thought about him that way. He’s done nothing to make me believe he might be so inclined, so I must question why you think he might think anything of me at all.”

“I overheard Anne say he ought to marry you.”

That brought her to a halt, to hear that Anne had said any such thing. Emily lifted her chin, but of all her sisters, Lucy knew Emily the best. They’d shared a room for years. They’d whispered secrets to each other in the darkness. Despite Emily’s nonchalance, she heard a different truth in her sister’s voice, in her eyes, in the set of her face.

“She told Mary so. I heard them talking about it. You’d get on well together, you and Bracebridge. That is my own opinion, by the way, though it mirrors Anne’s.”

“You are entitled to your opinion. As Anne is entitled to hers.” Bracebridge and her? What could Anne have been thinking? She could not think of anyone who would suit her less.

“Mary agreed.”

“Mary is entitled to her opinion as well.”

“Do you not find him appealing?”

Lucy caught her sister’s fleeting look of misery. “Do you?”

“He’s not handsome like Cynssyr or Aldreth. Or even Thrale. No, I don’t care for his looks at all.”

“That’s not been my impression.”

“Then you have mistaken me.”

She studied Emily, peering into her sister’s face. “I had thought perhaps you had a fondness for Mr. Glynn.”

“He’s agreeable enough.”

“Are you in love with him?”

Emily’s chin firmed. “I’m not in love with anyone.”

They continued toward the other guests. The more she thought about this situation, the more she worried about her sister’s attachment to Bracebridge. Carefully, she said, “Do you think he’s recovered from his disappointment over Anne?”

“No.” Emily adjusted her crown of marigolds. “I don’t think he has. “

“Nor I,” Lucy said, relieved by that admission.

“When I marry, it will be for a grand passion. Nothing else will do.” She clasped her hands to her bosom with deliberate drama. “My future husband will marry me because he loves me desperately and cannot take one more breath without my love.” She turned in a circle. “If I thought a gentleman felt that way about me, and I felt the same for him, then, and only then, would I marry him.”

“What wouldn’t I give for a life with a man who thought a grand and fatal passion was a fate to avoid.”

“Oh, Lucy, how can we be so much alike and yet so different?”

Someone called to Emily and then one of the Leverton girls emerged from the crowd and hurried to them. “We are in need of your assistance. Good afternoon, Mrs. Wilcott. Do you mind if we take Miss Sinclair away?”

“Go along, Emily.” She watched her sister’s departure with Miss Leverton. There was a trail of admiring looks in her wake. Lucy was near enough now to Captain Niall and the others that they were already making room for her to join them.

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