Secrets of a Spinster Read Online Free Page B

Duncan’s eagerness and Geoff’s disinterest in complaining. He was impossibly tired and really had no desire to be in a saddle again for a very long time.
    The season would start in a matter of weeks, and then he would have to have his guard up again. Every year some desperate girl, or her even more desperate mother, would try to get him to court and marry her. Those who had been around for a while or had daughters who had left the Marriage Mart with success knew his inclination and so they had ceased attempting to gain his attention. He very much appreciated those people.
    He sighed as he neared his home and tried to think of something to look forward to. At least Mary would be around. She was the one bright part of those blasted things. She would voice the things he would only think, and the two of them would laugh as quietly and delicately as possible, which was proving to be harder as the years went on. She was quite an unusual woman. She never complained that she rarely danced, though he danced with her every chance he could. She cared little for fashion, which was a little refreshing, if not outright astounding. She was a rare one, his Goose. One of these days, though, one of them would marry, and that would be it.
    But neither of them were so now, and that was good enough for him.
    As long as Mary was around, London would always be worth visiting.
    He smiled to himself and pushed his horse on a little faster, remembering his plans for taking the girls to the theater tomorrow evening. He loved taking Mary to the theater.
    It was one of the few things in life she actually, and very vocally, detested.
    London was looking brighter already.

C hapter T hree

    “I am so bored,” Cassandra moaned morosely from a sofa in the corner, setting aside the needlepoint she had been attempting to complete for nearly three years now. Cassandra was always bored and had no patience for needlework.
    Mary barely refrained from rolling her eyes and brought her eyes back down to the book she had been reading. There always seemed to be some sort of interruption whenever she got anywhere good in something as delightful as Pride and Prejudice . It was really quite annoying.
    A mournful, desperate sigh was heard a few moments later and Mary closed her eyes and gathered all of her patience, then set her book down and looked over at her sister. “What is it, Cassie?”
    Her sister adopted a look of feigned surprise and her pale blue eyes went wide. “Oh, I’m sorry, could you hear that?”
    Mary smiled tightly. “Yes, Cassie. I would much rather ignore you and continue reading, but as your sighs are very distracting, I cannot. What is it?”
    She looked as though she would argue the point, then decided against it. “I only wish there was something to do! I can’t just sit here and pretend to work on this wretched thing anymore.”
    “Try reading,” Mary suggested dryly.
    Cassandra shook her head. “It gives me a headache.”
    “Play the pianoforte.”
    “I don’t feel like it.”
    “Go for a walk.”
    “It looks like rain.”
    “Sketch something.”
    “No.”
    Mary sighed and closed her book. “Cassie, you are being more surly than normal. You are being difficult and juvenile, which is not like you. You hardly ate anything at breakfast, you have not sat still all morning, and you are quite frankly putting me at my wit’s end. What in the world is the matter with you? Are you determined to be miserable?”
    Instantly, her sister clamped her lips together in a thin line and looked away. Mary frowned at that. While Cassandra was a little dramatic and sometimes rather childish, she never hesitated to speak.
    “Cassie?”
    Her sister wiped at her eyes and shook her head.
    Mary rose from her chair and sat next to her sister, forcing her to meet her gaze. “Cassie.”
    Cassandra said nothing for a long moment, then said, in a very low voice, “I received a letter this morning. From Felicity Wyndham.”
    Mary slowly let out a