A Bloom in Winter Read Online Free Page B

between an earl and the illegitimate daughter of a maid, regardless of who fathered the child. She glanced sideways at Sebastian, wondering whether she should tell him. No. She wouldn’t betray Prudence further.
    “We should be getting back,” she said gently.
    He nodded absently, and as they started back slowly toward the house, she offered that Victoria had told her that Prudence was living in London and seemed to be well and happy.
    “Well, that’s something,” he said.
    “I’m hoping she will forgive me someday,” Rowena said, with a catch in her voice.
    He squeezed her arm. “You three were like sisters. I’m sure she won’t stay angry for long.”
    They walked back into the house, where Aunt Charlottewas gathering her things. “Oh, good. You’re back. We were just about to send a maid for you.”
    “Will you be going back to the university?” Lady Summerset asked Sebastian as she wrapped her wool cape around her shoulders.
    “Actually, I’m all finished. I started a term before Colin, so I finished before he did.”
    “Oh, really?” Lady Summerset placed her hand on his shoulder and smiled up at him in appeal. “You mustn’t be a stranger. I’m sure both Elaine and Rowena would love to have you come to dinner sometime, even if Colin can’t make it. Wouldn’t you , Rowena?”
    Startled, Rowena nodded. “Of course.” She caught an arch look between her aunt and Sebastian’s mother and wondered what it meant.
    On the long journey home, Rowena puzzled over the conversation she and Sebastian had in the garden. Had he harbored feelings for Pru? Maybe. But now that Prudence had married, it didn’t really matter, did it?

CHAPTER
TWO

    P rudence looked around their flat, wondering yet again how she was supposed to live in two and a half rooms and a single water closet. Then she berated herself. They were lucky to have the WC and even luckier to be out of the flea-ridden boardinghouse where they had been living since they had arrived in London over a month ago.
    She wasn’t sure what she’d thought they would do when they’d first stepped off the train from Summerset. She was so used to having someone else in charge that it took her a few moments to realize that her new husband, so confident around motors and animals, was completely out of his element in the teeming mass of people that made up Camden Town, London. It was up to her to collect their luggage and find a boardinghouse, up to her to find a flat near the Royal Veterinary College, and to find out what the requirements of attendance were.
    Andrew had almost quit right then. “We don’t have that much money!” he’d cried out. “That’s a bloody fortune.”
    Quietly, she let him know that she had enough money, and if they lived frugally and brought in some extra money here and there, they would be able to make it work.
    “I’d be living off my wife,” he scoffed, and Prudence couldn’t help but agree.
    “But then for the rest of our lives, you’ll be a veterinarian and I’ll be living off you ,” she told him briskly, and he’d relented, seeing her logic. He didn’t much like it and Prudence knew it would rankle, but she would be careful not to make an issue of it. Besides, she thought with the new, hard practicality she was developing, they really had very little choice.
    Now Mrs. Tannin stood with her hands on her hips and sniffed. “Sir Philip wouldn’t like this at all,” she said.
    Prudence had known bringing the housekeeper here from her old home would be a mistake. This entire flat would fit in Sir Philip’s study in the Mayfair mansion, but Prudence was no longer Sir Philip’s daughter and mansions were no longer a part of her present. Or her future, for that matter.
    “Sir Philip is gone and my husband and I have to live within our means.”
    “But surely Miss Rowena and Miss Victoria wouldn’t want you living in squalor . . . ”
    “Mrs. Tannin!” Hurt, Prudence drew herself up to her full height. It