Never Run From Love (Kellington Book Four) Read Online Free Page A

after her.  She kept assuring him she was perfectly fine but absolutely
miserable.  Hal had no doubt she suffered from the nausea, but her perpetual
glow since learning she was expecting certainly put paid to any notion that she
was anything other than thrilled.
    Hal was surprised to see that his maternal aunt Prue
was in attendance, along with her longtime companion, Mariah.  Aunt Prue and
Mariah were family favorites and had helped raise the Kellingtons after they’d
been orphaned.   Hal was always glad to see them, but their presence at the
meeting gave him an ominous feeling because it had been called by his paternal
aunt Agatha, the Countess of Crenshaw.  Aunt Prue and Aunt Agatha didn’t get
along and avoided each other at all cost.  There were many reasons for their
animosity, but much of it concerned a Kellington family secret.  Aunt Prue and
Mariah were very much in love, and had been for their twenty-year relationship. 
Since such unions were illegal in England, it was kept secret.  But Hal
suspected that even if the relationship hadn’t been an issue, Prue and Agatha
just wouldn’t have gotten along.
    It wasn’t that Aunt Agatha was a bad person.  She
was just a high stickler who never really forgave her late brother for marrying
so far beneath him socially.  Hal’s mother had been the daughter of a baronet
and his father had been one of the prizes of the marriage mart.  But nothing
could keep them apart. 
    Even death.
    As Hal walked into the study slowly, praying
Heskiss’s headache remedy would be delivered shortly, all eyes turned to him. 
He began to understand the purpose of the meeting and wanted nothing more than to
turn and flee.
    “Henry!” said Aunt Agatha with a volume that would
surely split his skull wide open, “you look terrible!”
    “Good morning, Aunt,” he said to her dryly, nodding
in her direction, then immediately regretted the motion.  He turned to his more
agreeable relations.  “Aunt Prue, Mariah.  I did not expect to see you here.”
    Aunt Prue, still a beauty in her early ‘40s, looked
at him with a combination of sympathy and amusement.  “Hal, as much as it pains
me to agree with the Countess, I must say you’ve looked better.” 
    “Shall I ring for tea?” asked Mariah, ever the
peacemaker.
    “Thank you, Mariah, but I believe Heskiss shall
bring me, uh, refreshments.”
    “Would this be the kind of refreshments one requires
after overindulging?” asked Arthur with his crooked grin.  “I daresay you need
it.  Sure you don’t want me to ring for kippers or kidneys or sausage?” 
    “Pray cease your teasing,” said Lizzie, looking
almost as green as Hal.  “For I am your unintended victim.”
    At that moment Heskiss entered, carrying a glass of
a dubious-looking liquid on a silver tray, which he offered to a grateful Hal. 
At the same time, a maid set out a platter of crackers, biscuits and cucumber
sandwiches.
    “Heskiss,” said Lynwood, after looking over the
dishes, “is Cook preparing something more substantive?”
    The butler looked just the slightest nonplussed
before replying, “Your grace, Cook has asked me to, uh, inform you that since
breakfast is over, she will serve no food that may make Lady Riverton feel
unwell.  She further states that should any other lady….”  Here, he looked in
Vanessa’s direction, “…feel ‘unwell,’ she would like to be informed forthwith so
she can adjust the menu accordingly.  In the meantime, if anyone wishes for a
more substantive repast, she will have a table set in a room away from Lady
Riverton and any other lady who might be in a similar ‘condition’.”
    “Is this Cook’s way of asking whether my wife is
expecting?” asked Arthur with a laugh, completely ignoring Vanessa’s vivid blush.
    “I am sure Cook would never be so presumptuous, my
lord,” said Heskiss.  “Although any such information would be gratefully
received.”
    “It is quite irregular, Lynwood,”