Rose in Bloom Read Online Free Page A

Alexandra asked.
    “Just resting a bit. I was feeling poorly, but I’m much better now.” Rose took a taste of the winter squash soup set before her. “This is delicious.”
    “Yes, it’s divine,” Alexandra said. “Guess what? The most wonderful thing has happened!”
    “What?” Rose asked.
    “Well,” Alexandra said, “you know that Mama and Miss Landon have renewed their childhood friendship during the past several weeks.”
    “Yes, of course,” Rose said. Lucinda Landon, sister to the dowager duchess, and Rose’s Aunt Iris had been best friends as girls.
    “They’ve so enjoyed each other’s company,” Alexandra continued, “so Miss Landon and the dowager duchess have invited Mama and Sophie and me to stay here at Laurel Ridge for the summer! Isn’t that amazing?”
    “It sounds lovely,” Rose said.
    “Just wait. The best part is that they’ve asked that you join us! Mama will be here to keep an eye on you, and then we’ll all be here to welcome Lily and the duke home when they return from France. Mama has already spoken to Auntie Flora and she says you may stay if you wish. What do you think, dear?”
    “Oh, goodness.” Stay here? And possibly see Cameron? She couldn’t….
    “That way you can continue to…you know.” Alexandra winked and nodded toward Evan.
    Evan’s estate was only a few hours away by carriage. If Rose returned to the Ashford estate in Hampshire, continuing Evan’s courtship would be difficult at best. No doubt her mother, Flora, the Countess of Ashford, was in favor of keeping the relationship going.
    “If the two of you are going to continue to talk over me,” Thomas interjected jovially, “perhaps we should exchange seats?”
    “Yes, Thomas, that’s a marvelous idea,” Alexandra said, rising. “Here you go.”
    Thomas held out his chair for Alexandra and then took her vacant seat.
    “But what of the season?” Rose asked. “We were all to be presented for the first time this year.”
    “Yes, yes, I know,” Alexandra said, “but we’re all young yet. We can wait until next season. Sophie and I have discussed it at length and have decided we’d like to stay at Laurel Ridge.”
    Rose didn’t doubt it. Her cousins, Sophie and Alexandra, had both met men they fancied at the Lybrook house party. Alexandra had been keeping company with Mr. Nathan Landon, the duke’s second cousin, and Sophie had caught the eye of Lord Marshall Van Arden, heir to an earldom and a very amiable fellow, if not the most handsome one. They were both having a wonderful time, and Rose was happy for them. They hadn’t had easy lives. Their mother was Lady Ashford’s older sister, Iris, the Countess of Longarry. She hadn’t received an offer of marriage on her own, so her parents had married her to a brutal Scottish earl when she was twenty-five years old. He had mistreated her and the girls, and had died two years earlier, his reckless spending leaving them penniless. The Earl and Countess of Ashford had taken care of them since then, setting them up in a townhouse in Mayfair and bestowing dowries upon the girls.
    “I’ll think on it,” Rose said.
    “Oh, you must stay,” Alexandra urged. “We’ll have the most fun. Miss Landon, who has asked that we call her Auntie Lucy, by the way, and the duchess—er, the dowager duchess—wants us to call her Auntie Maggie. Isn’t that a hoot? Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes. Auntie Lucy says there is the most wonderful Midsummer festival in that lovely little village outside of Bath. Won’t that be fun?”
    “Yes, I suppose so,” Rose replied. They had all enjoyed the May Day festival several weeks before. It was unlike anything Rose had ever experienced, as her father, Crispin, the ninth Earl of Ashford, was a devout Christian and frowned on anything with pagan origins. The earl and Thomas had returned to Hampshire to conduct estate business before the wedding, but the countess and Rose and Lily, along with Aunt Iris and the