Unraveling the Earl by Lynne Barron

Author:Lynne Barron
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781419993701
Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc
Published: 2014-10-03T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“You would do well to toss the ball higher and scoop from the side.”

Sharp blue eyes lifted from the jacks spread out over the stone walkway as a small red ball bounced once, twice before springing off the path and rolling over the lawn to land beneath a row of pink pansies.

“I’ve seen you in the park.” Lady Frances Gibbons’ gaze swept over Georgie from her rather simple straw bonnet to her white half-boots poking from beneath the hem of the demure pink muslin dress she’d donned for the occasion.

“Aye, I’ve seen you as well,” Georgie agreed, making her own perusal of the young girl she’d often seen playing beside her brother at Hyde Park. She was a pretty little thing, all enormous eyes and dark hair pulled back from her face by a blue ribbon that perfectly matched both her eyes and the ruffled dress she wore beneath a grass-stained pinafore.

“You’ve a yellow curricle,” the girl continued. “My mother has a curricle but hers hasn’t such big wheels or so high a perch. Do you ever get dizzy sitting so high?”

“Only when I take a corner too fast.”

“So nearly every time you take your curricle out.”

“It’s true, I do like to whip around corners.” Georgie shrugged one shoulder as she fought not to grin at the little girl sprawled out on the walkway to her home.

She knew instinctively that the little girl would not appreciate her amusement.

For all that she was not yet eight years of age, Lady Francis was a fierce little creature, and already too pretty for her age and too intelligent for a lady of any age.

Georgie sincerely hoped the girl learned to find humor in her own foibles. If not she was likely to find the life she’d been born into a difficult path to travel.

“You enjoy feeling dizzy, then?” the girl prodded, slowly rising to her feet.

“It seems that lately I feel dizzy more often than not,” Georgie replied, pressing her hands to the persistent fluttering in her belly. There was little she could do about the accompanying sensation that her head was stuffed with wool, soft, fluffy lamb’s wool, so light it might float away on a stiff wind.

“My brother likes to spin around and around until he’s dizzy.”

“I believe I know precisely who Lord Palmerton inherited that trait from,” Georgie mused. “Along with his blond curls and lopsided smile.”

“Charlie’s smile is rather lopsided,” Lady Francis agreed.

As if they’d conjured him simply by talking of him, Charles Gibbons, the Earl of Palmerton, careened around the corner of the house, his booted feet slipping on the grass before he righted himself and tore across the lawn toward his sister.

“Fanny!” he called out. “Fanny, look what I found in the garden!”

The little lord spotted Georgie peering in through the fence and came to a sudden halt a dozen feet from his destination. From his right hand hung a small black snake, twisting and writhing.

“Oh good,” his sister said. “Let’s cut him up.”

“No!” Lord Palmerton whipped the snake behind his back.

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