Mischief by Moonlight by Emily Greenwood

Author:Emily Greenwood
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Published: 2014-04-07T04:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Josie was glad to be back at Jasmine House. She was still sad that Nicholas was gone, and wrung out from what had happened with Colin, but she wasn’t numb anymore. She could eat and talk to people and just keep going, even if she did so with a heavy heart.

Her courses had arrived three days after she returned home, releasing her at least from that worry. But the fantasy of going to India had taken hold, and she held on to it as a possible future for herself. It would be an adventure, an idea to entertain her when she felt like herself again, however fanciful it seemed that she would be able to do it.

As the days passed, she had to acknowledge that, though she was still angry with Colin, she also yearned to hear something from him. She wanted him to send her a letter, to come back to Greenbrier and rush over to Jasmine House and say he’d been wrong and he loved her. She so hoped for even the tiniest of signs he was thinking of her.

But there was nothing.

Clearly he wanted to put all that had happened between them behind him. He would go back to his books and be grateful for the detachment from life they offered.

She reminded herself that she’d bluntly rejected his offer of marriage, which would hardly encourage him to woo her. But she’d rejected it because it had been made out of duty and perhaps affection, but not love.

She had far more than affection for him. She needed Colin because she loved him. But sufficient unto himself as he’d always been, he didn’t need her, and he certainly didn’t love her.

She wished his home weren’t so near; she could see part of it from her bedchamber window. Nestled prettily on a slight incline amid its handsome grounds, the hall was cozily if grandly framed by towers at each of its four corners. With its pale stone and its air of timeless quietude, Greenbrier, despite its magnificence, had always seemed friendly. Now it felt foreign, as though it had secrets she knew nothing about.

Days at Jasmine House fell into their customary routine. Josie’s brothers still ran about shouting and wrestling with each other, trailed by their long-suffering tutor. Though Lawrence did seem to be cultivating finer manners and was suddenly interested in spending time in the village on market days.

Mrs. Cardworthy still lay draped across the divan all day with her pile of novels.

Having been away from Jasmine House for so long, Josie had a new perspective, and it struck her that the sitting room, with the Indian touches she’d always liked, now seemed to bear her father’s stamp. Every time she thought of the hurtful things he’d said to Edwina, it made her angry, and she thought that, four years after his death, it was time to put the past behind them and start a new era. But her mother wouldn’t hear of changing anything.

“I like these things,” she’d said when Josie suggested new furnishings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.