A Season to Be Sinful by Jo Goodman

Author:Jo Goodman [Goodman, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

When Lily woke she was in her own room with no memory of how she arrived there. Her recollection of detail until she fell asleep was remarkably clear, and she was grateful to have no time to dwell on it. She’d slept almost an hour longer than was her habit, and if she did not arrive in the schoolroom at the appointed time, the scoundrels would be upon her.

She washed, dressed, and decided to forego her morning walk in favor of eating breakfast. The boys were helping themselves at the sideboard when she entered the dining room. Lord Sheridan, who normally took his morning meal in his room, was sitting at the head of the table sipping coffee and reading from a folded newspaper.

He lowered the paper just a fraction so that he might view her over the top. “Good morning,” he said. His eyes fell back on the paper, and he resumed reading.

Lily wished him the same, though she did not think her voice was half so cool as his. She greeted the boys with more enthusiasm and helped herself at the sideboard when they moved on. Pinch was waiting for her at the table and held out a chair.

“Thank you,” she said. “Master Midge, will you pass the jam?” She spread a dollop of it on a triangle of toast. “Have any of you given thought to where we might begin today? I am all for doing sums.” She expected this would be met by some sort of protest, at the very least a groan from Dash who hadn’t the same skill with numbers as the other two. Instead, they darted glances at one another, apparently looking for a spokesman. Lily watched this for a moment, then looked suspiciously toward the head of the table. Sherry remained behind his newspaper, but Lily was certain he was hiding now.

It was Midge, always the most vulnerable to a frontal assault, that Lily singled out. “What has his lordship promised you will do today?”

Midge’s deep blue eyes could not hold Lily’s direct gaze. Blinking rapidly, he began to sink in his chair.

“I say, Master Midge, buck up.” This was from Sherry, and he had not come out from behind the paper. “She hasn’t applied thumbscrews.”

Midge gripped the sides of his chair. “Ye ain’t lookin’ at ’er,” he grumbled softly. “She’s got a way o’ makin’ a body go all melty.”

“The brain, too,” Pinch said helpfully.

Sherry’s paper rattled a little as his shoulders shook, but he stayed where he was.

“Well, Midge?” asked Lily.

“We’re to go to the village with Mr. Pipkin and Tolley and fetch supplies for Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Gant.”

Bennet and Gant were the head cook and baker at Granville. Lily knew very well that there were helpers to manage precisely what Sherry was sending the boys to do. Had he not placed them in her charge in the schoolroom she would have been pleased to have them assigned such tasks.

“We have a list,” Dash said. He lifted his right buttock and produced a paper from under it.

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