Not Wicked Enough Read Online Free Page A

crossed the black-and-white tiles, hands extended. “Good heavens, Lily. So late. You must be exhausted.”
     
    “I,” said the duke, “am not in the least tired. Thank you for asking after me, Eugenia.”
     
    “Couldn’t be helped,” Lily said. She took Ginny’s hands while her friend made a face at her brother. “But I’m here, and I’ve just come back from a bracing walk and feel ready to face a bit of tea and something to eat. Will you join me? I’ll tell you everything that’s happened since you left me bereft at Syton House.” She glanced at Mountjoy, standing by the door. “You, too, duke.”
     
    Ginny enveloped Lily in a hug. Lily breathed in her perfume of roses and citrus. A new scent for Ginny, but she liked it very much. “How wonderful,” Ginny said, “that at last you’ve come to visit after so many months of my pleading with you.”
     
    “I ought to have come sooner.” Indeed she ought to have. If she’d had any idea the case was so dire, she’d have come immediately. She kissed Ginny’s cheek. “You know how I am. Never as organized as one ought to be.” Lily tightened her arms around Ginny and softly said, “My darling, you are far too thin.” She stepped back and released Ginny.
     
    Mountjoy said, “Doyle, bring us tea, won’t you?”
     
    “In the Oldenburg salon,” Ginny said.
     
    “Yes. There.” The duke gestured. “Something to eat as well.”
     
    Lily added, “A substantial something if it’s not too much trouble.”
     
    “Your grace. Lady Eugenia.” The butler bowed at the waist, but he was smiling, which seemed auspicious, though Lily wondered who had decided Ginny was not to be called Mrs. Bryant. “Miss Wellstone.”
     
    Ginny put her arm through Lily’s and headed for the stairs, ignoring her brother. He followed them despite that. “You have the room next to mine, did you know that?”
     
    “The Lilac room I was told. It’s lovely.” Heavens, but she was glad to be here. In Exeter, Ginny had become a very dear friend. “I am now determined to have a room with lilac accents when I’m back at Syton House.”
     
    “I knew you’d love the view of the garden.” They continued walking arm in arm until the stairs were too narrow, and Lily took the lead. She was far too aware of the duke behind them. “They’re not the gardens at Syton House,” Ginny said. “That goes without saying, but we do very well here, all the same.”
     
    Lily walked backward up the stairs so she and Ginny could face each other. His grace continued up the stairs, a pleasantly bland expression on his face. “You were right that I would adore the view. I gazed for several minutes upon the prospect when I arose.” After all this time, Ginny still wore black. There was no question Lily was needed here. Ginny must not be allowed to founder here as she had been. “How have you been, my dearest Eugenia?”
     
    “Oh, very well, thank you. Do you still not sleep well at night?”
     
    “Abysmally, I fear.”
Oh, Ginny
, she thought,
you should not be so sad
. She touched her left hand to the stone wall and held her skirts out of her way with the other as she continued her backward walk up the stairs.
     
    “We keep country hours here,” Mountjoy said.
     
    “I’m sure you do, your grace. Everyone but me keeps them at Syton House. I assure you I’ll muddle along whilst I am here.” She waved her left hand then returned to skimming the wall with her fingertips. “I always do, don’t I, Ginny?”
     
    “Yes, Lily.”
     
    She looked past Ginny to her brother. “Don’t dream of changing your schedule on my account, your grace.”
     
    “I shan’t. Right at the top,” Mountjoy said.
     
    “Right, is it?” She reached the top of the stairs well ahead of Ginny and her brother and turned. She took several steps before she realized the corridor looked familiar. That couldn’t be correct.
     
    “Right,” said the duke from somewhere still on the