“Couple?” He looked utterly mystified for all of three seconds, then laughed. “Ah, that little scheme Fox and your grandmother cooked up in the event things didn’t work out with Henry. Rest assured, my lady, Julia is not the Renshaw sister who interests me, nor am I the man who interests her.”
With that he leaned in and caught Phoebe’s lips in a warm little kiss that ended all too soon, before she could decipher its meaning—to him, to herself—and before she could quite decide if she wished it to end or go on and on. He smiled again, bowed slightly, and left the room.
Blindly, Phoebe left the billiard room, too, with hardly a notion of where she was going or what she passed along the way. No wonder she bumped into Julia in the corridor.
“What on earth is wrong with you, Phoebe? Watch where you’re going.”
“Julia . . . sorry. I—”
“Goodness, Phoebe, you what? Did you take a blow to the head in the midst of your derring-do last night?” Julia narrowed her eyes and leaned closer to study her. “Or perhaps you caught a head cold from being out in the snow.”
“Neither. I’m fine, it’s just that . . . Oh, Julia.” Suddenly overcome with an admiration she hadn’t felt for her sister in a very long time, she threw her arms around Julia.
“What on earth is this?”
Phoebe pulled back. “What you did—your part in bringing Henry to justice—to think you let me believe you’d behaved dishonorably when all along your actions were nothing short of heroic.”
Julia’s beautiful features pulled taut in a scowl. “Don’t you go shoving me onto any pedestals, little sister, or the whole lot will come tumbling down around your naïve little ears. What I did was as much motivated by self-interest as any other reason. I detested Henry, and the idea of seeing him brought low filled me with glee. I didn’t wish death on him, mind you, but ostracized, penalized—oh yes, I wanted him to have what he deserved. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
With that, Julia brushed by her and continued to the gallery. Phoebe stood where she was for several long moments, dazed by her encounters with both her sister and Owen. As to the latter . . . hmm . . . she didn’t know. Simply didn’t know. It was all so unexpected and so . . . so not the sort of thing that happened to girls like her.
As for Julia . . . a smile dawned on Phoebe’s lips. For all her protests, Julia had been heroic and that meant she had cared enough about something—anything—to rouse herself to action. And that meant Julia was finally coming alive again. Phoebe’s smile persisted as she continued on to her room, her mind abuzz with all manner of new possibilities and hopes for the future.
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2016 by Lisa Manuel
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Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 2015951102
ISBN-13: 978-1-61773-830-2
ISBN-10: 1-61773-830-1
First Kensington Hardcover Edition: January 2016
ISBN: 978-1-6177-3830-2
First Kensington Electronic Edition: January 2016
Murder Most Malicious Page 28
