The Waylaid Heart Read Online Free

I'm not hungry," Cecilia returned instantly in habitual response. She did, however, cross the room to join her aunt on the sofa.
    Lady Meriton studied her niece critically. "Yours is presently a sylph-like figure. I fear it will soon be skeletal if you persist with your current eating habits. Should that happen, those illnesses you feign may well become more real than imagined." She poured a cup of tea for Cecilia.
    Cecilia laughed, accepted the cup, then patted her aunt's hand. "Should that occur we shall have to depend on my erstwhile physician here," she said, inclining her head in Mr. David Thornbridge's direction, "to see that I recover."
    Mr. Thornbridge started at his benefactress's sally, his cup rattling in its saucer. He placed the cup and saucer carefully on the inlaid table at his side. "Mrs. Waddley, I must protest," the young gentleman declared, his face suffused with embarrassed color.
    "Oh, Cecilia, be serious," Lady Meriton abjured, thrusting a small plate bearing a sugared tart into her niece's hands. "Pay no attention to her, Mr. Thornbridge. My niece is as healthy as a horse and more than likely shall remain that way, skeletal or not. I should know better than to request she eat," her aunt said briskly while watching with complacency as Cecilia took a bite of the confection. "It is best to just put the food before her and allow her own nervous habits to guide it to her mouth."
    Cecilia paused in the act of raising the pastry to her lips. She stared at the tart, ruefully smiling. " Touché, ma tante," she murmured before taking another bite. She absently brushed sugar from her cheek. "Mr. Thornbridge, I apologize for my melancholy demeanor today."
    "Please, Mrs. Waddley, there is no need."
    Cecilia waved his hurried assurances aside. "Yes, there is. You see, last evening I heard someone repeat the phrase my husband recorded in his journal. The phrase that he felt confident is the password for whatever group is illegally using the Waddley Spice and Tea properties. It is the first real break we've had!" She popped the last morsel of tart into her mouth and set her plate on the tea tray. Her slender fingers, free of encumbrances, fluttered, echoing her words.
    "So Lady Meriton has explained."
    "I should be merry as a grig to have some new direction for our investigation," Cecilia continued earnestly, "unfortunately, to my mind, it has been like a dam breaking. I find myself remembering too much."
    "I'm certain, given the situation, that is perfectly natural."
    "That is true, dear," Lady Meriton said, her pale blue eyes expressing concern for her niece.
    "Where did you hear this phrase? I'll own I've been wracking my inept brain to understand it or its genesis!" the young Waddley's manager exclaimed.
    "Now that is the crux of the matter," Cecilia said, a wry smile twisting her lips. "I heard it last evening during an exceedingly boring musicale given by Lady Amblethorp."
    "Almost all Society was there," added Lady Meriton, "though why, I don't know. Lady Amblethorp is an indifferent hostess. For some curious reason, last night there was a paucity of society entertainments on the calendar to choose from."
    "Everyone who is anyone was at the Amblethorp musicale," Cecilia said drily.
    "Yes, and the spate of entertainments Julia Amblethorp has offered this season stem solely from desperation. She's afraid the season will end with Janine unbetrothed. This is the poor child's second season."
    Cecilia smiled and shook her head. "Be careful you do not write off Janine so easily. I see rebellion brewing in that quiet little mouse." Her eyes sparkled at a private vision of the future. "But we digress. Mr. Thornbridge's question should not be where did I heard the phrase, but on the lips of whom."
    "You identified the speaker?"
    Cecilia sighed, nodded, and looked away for a moment. "It was Randolph Haukstrom," she said when she turned back to face their guest.
    "Your brother?" Incredulity cracked his voice.
    "Now you