[Samuel Barbara] Lucien's Fall(Book4You) by Unknown Page B

openings cut in the hedges. "The claire-voies must stay to one’s left. The small rooms are always to the right."

    The fact that he really was quite ill finally penetrated her selfish, inward conflicts.
    "Oh, by Jupiter," she muttered, moving toward him. "Put your arm around my shoulders and we’ll get out of here."

    "No." His voice was harsh. "I’ll walk."

    "Very well." He was the most exasperating man. "Do as you wish. Charles is leaving this morning and I must return to bid him farewell."

    He said nothing. Madeline headed for the outlet. As she turned the corner to leave him, he said, "You’ll be thinking of my mouth when you kiss him good-bye."

    She didn’t pause, only clutched her skirts and kept going. Let the black hearted wretch starve to death out here.. How dare he?

    How dare he?

Chapter Eight

    … dying is a pleasure
    When living is a pain.
    —John Dryden

    Juliette and the countess of Heath had been friends since both were in their early twenties. Both prided themselves on their independence in a man’s world, the independence to choose their lovers and lives the same way a man would do. Both had used beauty and a talent for the bawdy to work themselves up in the world.

    Both were now facing the slow, steady downward spiral toward middle age. As they sat on the terrace underneath a carefully draped fabric designed to shade them from the harsh sunlight, eating sliced strawberries and fresh bread, Juliette thought she was aging rather better than her friend. Likely, Juliette thought, because her own husband had obligingly passed on, while Anna was forced to manage her dull, dowdy country earl with cunning and deftness.

    Still Anna was beautiful, as dark as Juliette was fair. Juliette enjoyed, as always, the contrast between them. It had served to set each apart all the days of their friendship.

    "How is the campaign going?" Anna asked lightly, buttering a roll. "Will we be hearing wedding bells this fall?"

    Juliette licked a sprinkle of sugar from her index finger. "I think so. Charles is quite besotted, and Madeline is a sensible girl. She’ll do what’s best."

    As if on cue, Madeline wandered out to the table, her hair brushed and neatly arranged, her skin glowing with the health and clarity only youth could boast. A deep, sharp pride ached in Juliette’s chest—her daughter was by far the most beautiful of all the girls this season. And she was brilliant, as well. In a rush of fond feeling, she touched her hand. "Good morning, dear heart! Will you have some strawberries?"

    "Please." She looked around. "Where is Lord Lanham?"

    "I’m sure I don’t know. Why ever do you ask?"

    "I thought I saw him come this way," Madeline said with a shrug. "Must have been mistaken. Perhaps he’s gone riding or something."

    "Speaking of Jonathan," Anna said, leaning forward, "it was wicked of you to invite me here while Lord Esher stays under your roof."

    "What? Why?" Juliette frowned. "Have I made some dreadful social error?"

    "My dear!" Anna laughed. "You mean you don’t know?"

    "Evidently I do not."

    Madeline spoke, reaching for cream to pour on the strawberries. "Do tell, Countess."

    Juliette looked up at the odd tone in her daughter’s voice. A drollness was not uncommon on Madeline’s sharp tongue, but there was something else here now. Juliette frowned.

    "Well," Anna said, blotting her lips, "there was a terrible scandal. I can’t think how you missed it, unless you were on the Continent at the time." She inclined her head.
    "Yes, perhaps you were. The summer of ’73. Or perhaps ’74."

    Juliette knew it would only lengthen the story if she attempted to rush it from Anna’s mouth. With a soft, slight sigh, she folded her hands. Madeline caught her eye and gave her a slight, wicked wink.

    "Lord Esher was only a youth, perhaps not quite twenty. I met him at a ball, and he pursued me relentlessly. At first, I resisted—I’d had other lovers by then of course, but none so young as he,