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“Then if you are ready,for her cloak
Torn by a divisive erness to be alone with her and hu home, Will said, only a touch of irony in his voice, “’Twill be my pleasure”
It was a testament to how rattled Mrs Randall had been by her unorthodox reception that she didn’t think to ask for a ured the prospect of rotting floorboards and cru to ravish her charge, Will thought acidly
Silently he led Allegra from the warm parlor up a set of cold, narrow stairs to the first floor “Behold the gate totoward the entry
She gave hi in every detail of the dust-dulled marble floor, the wide oaken entry door and scarred wooden stairs draped with cobwebs that drifted down frohostly scarves
Best get this over with quickly, he told hi his teeth, he seized her elbow and steered her to the doorway of the front parlor, its furniture muffled under heavy cotton covers, then to the mausoleum of a library with its linen-shrouded shelves, then back to the dining room and two reception rooms beyond it, all three barren of furniture, their faded wall hangings streaked ater marks and darkened by mold
Glad now for Mrs Randall’s lapse in decoru himself any further, he said brusquely, “Since we have no chaperone, Miss Antinori, I won’t suggest touring the rest of this floor or the bedchambers above—which for the most part are in the sa, he thought, how much of a curb humiliation was to the appetite, for he’d been able to link “Miss Antinori” and “bedcha of lust “We can exit to the garden here”
Unable to bear looking at her face and seeing the distaste he knew ain, escorting her outside and down the stairs frorown rera continued to walk silently beside him, doubtless too appalled by his ruin of a home to speak
By now his chest hurt and he was breathing as hard as if he’d run a race He’d never iined it would be this painful to so baldly expose his poverty He was surprised Allegra hadn’t already draay fro to return to Mrs Randall and the carriage that would transport her back to a household redolent of polished wood, shiny brass and pristine paint instead of mildew and rot
Then she stopped, but instead of voicing a request to leave ireen needles of an overgrown rosen is, alternating green, silver and blue-leaved plants,” she observed “The garden needs just a bit of care to set it to rights again”
“It was lovely indeed inelse here, it’s fallen into ruin frolect and lack of funds,” he replied, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice
“But the garden, like the ned and sound Oh, ’tis true the roof needs work, but once that is repaired, one need only strip off the ruined wall coverings in the back roo and polishing, that oak andof the ceiling is both unique and beautiful No wonder you love Brook so much, my lord”
Having braced himself to hear mockery in her voice, the sincerity of her tone surprised hily, he found her expression to be as earnest as her voice
“You find Brook…beautiful?” he repeated incredulously
“It certainly could be! If I were you, I should not be able to resist beginning its restoration immediately, even before I wed my heiress There’s plenty of tie could be hired for a ht help out for a reduction in their rents And the view froo back to the fog and smoke of London”
“But the house is practically a ruin!”
Chuckling, she took his ared his we rented when traveling with Papa! Ma appears at the ht beconificent”
He stared down at her face, gloith genuine ade his pride She really believed what she was saying
His anger and hu hard and cold deep within him melted in the warmth of her enthusias her around until she was dizzy