The Orphan Pearl by Erin Satie

Author:Erin Satie [Satie, Erin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical Romance, London, Victorian Romance, Intrigue
ISBN: 9781942457046
Publisher: Little Phrase
Published: 2015-04-20T18:00:00+00:00

Lily stared sightlessly at the door.

“Why defend me?” Alfie asked.

Lily sank onto the floor next to Alfie. She wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them close, feet flat on the landing. “You never did a thing to me that I didn’t want. That I didn’t ask for.”

“I made your life impossible. You left the country because of me.”

“I left because I didn’t want to marry the Duke of Leeds.”

That had been her father’s solution to the problem, when he’d discovered them. Marry her to a sixty-year-old man, a widower with a pack of heirs. Someone her dubious virtue wouldn’t harm.

A tear dripped down the side of Alfie’s nose.

“Oh, Alfie.” She blinked back tears of her own. “You had good reason to be frightened. You’d just lost your father. You had a mother and a sister to think of. It’s no small thing to defy my father. They might have paid for our defiance.”

“Lily, it’s my fault your father found us. I arranged for it to happen.”

Lily froze. “No.”

“I asked him for your hand,” he said. “Over and over, but he always refused.”

“You did no such thing. I would have known.”

“How? I didn’t tell you. I thought things were quite tense enough without my adding to it. He didn’t tell you because… well, why would he consult you on the subject? I thought I could force him to accept my suit.”

A strange sound, half laugh and half sob, bubbled up her throat. She pressed her fingers to her lips to hold it in. “What fools we were.”

“I’m sorry, Lily.”

“Don’t be. Listen to you. Whatever you’ve done these last ten years, that boy I loved has nothing to apologize for. You didn’t wrong me, Alfie.”

His let his head fall back against the wall, chin tipped up and throat exposed. “Oh, God.”

Lily laced her hand through his and laid her head on his shoulder. “Should I fetch the smelling salts?”

He laughed hoarsely.

“Warm milk,” Lily suggested.

“I forgot what a pest you were.”

“Because you have cheese for brains.”

“Lily?”

“Hmm?”

“I’m not a liar.”

“I hope not.”

“Whoever it is, she might hate me…” Alfie sighed and squeezed her hand. “If someone has to kill me, I guess I’d like it to be you.”

“If the accusation turns out to be true…” She really would stand back and let him die. He’d deserve it. “Have you thought about steering clear of young unmarried ladies?”

Alfie shrugged. “I think about it.”

“And then?”

“And then I stop thinking.” Alfie rubbed his throat. “I need tea. Or whiskey. That man is hard on the vocal chords.”

Lily shoved herself to her feet and held out her hand. “Here. I’ve got you.”

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