Kathryn Smith - [Friends 03] Read Free

would be too enamored of her betrothed to spend her time flitting all over England making trouble for her weary older brother.
    Drawing a fur lap robe up over his chest to ward off the damp, Julian once again laid his head on the plush velvet padding behind him. He was getting too old for this sort of thing. He would much rather be at home with a good book and a glass of wine than out in this awful weather.
    "Ah, Lettie," he sighed, closing his eyes. It would be much easier to stay furious at the girl if he didn't love her so deeply. But this latest trick was too damn much. She had defied him for the last time.
    The ache in his head lessened as sleep, brought on by the sound of the rain on the roof and the darkness inside the carriage, came to collect him. Julian put all thoughts of his sister aside and tried not to think at all as he drifted off. He was almost successful, except for the thoughts that plagued him as he fell into slumber— thoughts of laughing dark eyes and the woman who possessed them.

    * * *
    "What, might I ask, is so interesting about the rain that keeps you watching out that window?"
    Sophia Morelle, dowager Marchioness of Aberley, turned her attention from her front gate on the other side of the glass, to the young woman in marigold satin sprawled on a chaise across the room. She smiled, even though she did not feel like it.
    "I am watching for your brother," she replied with a shiver that had more to do with the man in question than the draft creeping through the soft cashmere of her shawl.
    Letitia rolled her doelike eyes in exasperation. "I thought we already established that Julian would never come here."
    Smiling humorlessly at her friend's confidence, Sophia rose from the window seat and crossed the gently creaking oak floor to the fire where Letitia sat. "No, you established it. I disagreed with you then and I still do. You are quite wrong if you believe your brother will allow you to remain under my roof once he learns you are here."
    The younger, thinner woman eyed her curiously as Sophia sat in the chair across from her. She did not seem moved by the warning at all.
    "He is afraid of you."
    Sophia snorted. "He fears nothing."
    Letitia pressed forward, leaning her elbow against the pillows. "Then why does he go out of his way to avoid meeting you?"
    "Because he despises me." A long time ago— it seemed a lifetime— she had despised him as well, but that had eased somewhat as she grew older. Now, she could almost understand why Julian betrayed her. Unfortunately, the wound of his betrayal had not faded with her hatred. It remained ever present in the background. Sometimes she would go months without thinking of it, but when she did, the hurt was still as sharp and raw as ever.
    She had been a stupid, stupid fool where he was concerned and she had never forgiven herself.
    Her friend smiled. "My brother flaunts himself in the face of those he dislikes. I think it gives him some kind of perverse pleasure. He would rather leave a place than play that game with you."
    "I humiliated him," Sophia retorted, shame creeping into her cheeks. "No doubt the sight of me is a reminder of that."
    "And the sound of your name as well?" Letitia arched a brow. "Is that a reminder? He cannot stand that either."
    Sophia stared at her friend. Letitia made it sound like Julian's hatred was something Sophia should be proud of. At that moment, with that haughty, self-satisfied expression on her face she looked very much like her elder brother. So much so that Sophia had to turn away.
    "I would imagine even the slightest mention of me would cause him discomfort," she muttered. Lord knew she cringed at the slightest reference to him .
    "I must confess I have heard little of the story from Julian. Most of what I know I heard from the gossips."
    Sophia glanced up. Julian hadn't told her the whole sordid tale? No, she supposed not. He had no way of knowing that the two of them would ever become friends, and it was hardly the