Mally : Signet Regency Romance (9781101568057) Read Free Page A

“I’ve heard tell recently, mind, that someone’s bought it and it’s lived in again. Perhaps it will come into its own again, eh, Miss Mall?”
    â€œI haven’t been near the place since that time Daniel locked me in somewhere there and wouldn’t let me out.”
    â€œAye, and a good thrashing he got from his father on account of it. That wasn’t long before his parents were taken by the smallpox. His parents. Your uncle. And half the folk of Llanglyn. So Daniel came to live beneath the same roof as you, and that was the beginning of it, wasn’t it?”
    Mally nodded. “Maria got so jealous and furious because we wouldn’t play with her. We’d go sneaking off, hoping that she hadn’t seen us. But she usually found us in the end, and spoiled all our games by insisting on having everything her own way. Poor Maria.” Mally finished the milk. “Lucy—why is Mother here?”
    â€œI don’t know.” Lucy got to her feet.
    â€œDidn’t she say anything to you?”
    â€œNo.”
    Mally glanced at the curtained windows. “She must have said something.”
    â€œOnly when I asked her if they’d caught the murderer. She looked fit to burst into tears and said that they hadn’t. Then she went and locked herself in the Green Room.”
    â€œI know, Digby told me.”
    â€œShe’s very upset about it,” said Lucy heavily, “as I am myself. And as you are too, if I’m not mistaken.”
    â€œDon’t you miss anything?”
    â€œNot where my lamb is concerned. I’ve seen you jump when a door banged, and glance over your shoulder where the shadows are darker. And it’s only since the murder.”
    â€œI know, and I’m disgusted with myself for giving in like this. Oh, I
wish
Mother had let us know she was coming, for she’s managed to unsettle me all over again now.”
    â€œWell, you know your mam, Miss Mall, she’s a creature of impulse if ever I knew one.” Lucy smiled reassuringly. “My, your hair stayed in a treat tonight. I’ll warrant Sir Christopher was the proudest man there.”
    â€œIt went very well until the usual subject cropped up on the way home. It was the naming of the house this time.”
    â€œWell, sweeting, you
were
a little tactless there, weren’t you?”
    â€œI know. Lucy, do you like him?”
    â€œSir Christopher? But of course I do, I like him very much.” Lucy unpinned the intricate curls and dropped the pins into a porcelain dish. “But perhaps he’s not for you.”
    â€œWhy do you say that?”
    â€œBecause it seems to my old eyes that he wants a blushing bride who behaves like a maid in the midst of her first love. If that is what he wants, then he shouldn’t be marrying the widow of his best friend, now should he?”
    Mally looked at the emerald ring on her finger, turning it so that the flames caught it in flashes of deep green. “I love him.”
    â€œI know you do, but do you love him enough and in the right way?”
    Mally removed the ring and pulled off her white evening gloves. The ring felt cold when at last she replaced it. “I want to marry him, Lucy.”
    â€œThen carry on as you now do, biting back each unwary word, concealing the truth of how you feel deep inside, and enduring his behavior when he senses you are not being honest with him.”
    â€œYou make it sound like a life sentence, not marriage.”
    Lucy glanced down at her and said nothing, picking up the hairbrush and brushing the dark hair until it crackled.
    When at last Mally was ready to climb into the warmed bed with its lavender-scented sheets, the dawn had turned from gray to silver outside. She lay back, watching Lucy draw the heavy velvet curtains around the bed.
    â€œI wonder if someone
has
bought Castell Melyn? Would you go there again if they had? In the springtime?”
    Lucy smiled