Lady Lilias and the Devil in Plaid - Julie Johnstone Page 0,27

name she’d given him. Always cold. But he owed her for what he’d done to Thomas.

“I’ll go,” he said with a sigh. He’d simply have to stay away from Lilias. Of course, that could be difficult if he encountered her with Owen. If that occurred, he’d be pleasantly cool. He looked at his mother. He’d learned from the best.

“If Mama saw you in that gown, she’d have fit,” Nora said, pursing her lips at Lilias.

Nora was correct, but her mother was abed with another deep melancholy. It was the third time this month that Mama’s sadness had been so great that she’d told Lilias to attend a ball without her. Her only parting motherly advice had been to “please secure a husband.”

Lilias eyed herself in the crimson gown she’d borrowed from Guinevere. It was cut daringly low, and the rich color of the silk would make her stand out. It was perfect. This was the new her. A woman who was no longer a fool, who no longer believed if she loved Nash enough, he’d love her in return. He was not some hero from one of her books. He would never protect her and cherish her, and she would forget him. But before she really strove to do that, just once she wanted him to see her, to desire her, to perhaps even question what he might have let slip through his fingers.

After tonight, she would be good. She would follow the rules of Society and find a proper husband to ease her mother’s burdens and to set a good course for her sister’s future. She’d been selfish long enough.

“Lilias, did you hear me?” Nora demanded.

Lilias took one more look at her hair before answering her sister. It was down and in slight disarray. She patted it, but it was fairly hopeless. She had no skill with putting up her hair, and they could no longer afford a lady’s maid, not that the one they’d formerly employed had been any good with hair, either. Finally, she turned to Nora. “I hear you. Mama won’t see me. She’s abed.”

Nora gave Lilias an exasperated look. “I said, what are you going to offer me for keeping this—” she motioned to Lilias’s attire “—a secret.”

“I’m out of trinkets to give you, Nora.” Lilias’s escapades at the Cotswolds had cost her nearly all her things, including her ribbons and lace.

Nora grinned. “You should behave, then. I’ll take a ride in Owen’s coach in the park,” she said, eyes twinkling. “At the fashionable hour.”

Lilias scowled at her sister. “Your lust to be part of the fashionable set is going to cause you heartache when you make your debut.” That pretentious lot would never accept Nora with her lack of funds.

Nora tossed her blond curls over her shoulder. “When I wish for your opinion, I’ll ask for it. If you will not convince Owen to do this, then I’ll tell Mama about your gown.”

Lilias gritted her teeth. Nora could be a real pain, but she did love her. “I’m not speaking to Owen,” she said, matter-of-fact. And she wasn’t sure when she would do so again, but it was none of her sister’s business. He had lied to her. He had kept Nash’s presence in the Cotswolds through the years a secret, and he’d even visited with him. The betrayal cut deep, even though the logical side of her mind knew Owen had been trying to protect her feelings. He’d likely seen what she had refused to: Nash would never love her.

“Perhaps the Duke of Carrington can drive you in the park with Guinevere at the fashionable hour?” Lilias suggested.

Nora scowled. “That won’t do. It must be a handsome, eligible man so that the other girls my age will see me and be green with envy. When Mama lets me debut next Season, I’ll be the talk of the ton.”

“You certainly will,” Lilias quipped, realizing how hypocritical the words she was about to say were. “But it will not be the sort of talk a young lady trying to make a good match would wish for.”

Nora gave her a look that told Lilias her sister thought her as much of a hypocrite as Lilias thought herself. A flush heated her face. “I was not trying to make a match,” Lilias huffed. “I thought I’d found the man I would wed.”

“And now?” Nora asked, sounding fascinated.

Lilias realized she had not done a good job at all of setting a proper example for her younger sister, and