Cardiff Siblings 01 - Seven Minutes in Devon

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Book: Read Cardiff Siblings 01 - Seven Minutes in Devon for Free Online
Authors: Catherine Gayle
Tags: Romance, Suicide, Historical Romance, Regency Romance, regency series, blindness, tortured artist
then she gave a brisk nod. “I’ll be back shortly, my lady.
Wait here for me, if you please.”
    “ Go,” Lady Morgan repeated
on a laugh. The sound was soft and tinkling, even a bit melodic,
like chimes in the wind. Emma couldn’t remember ever hearing it
before. Had she truly not laughed once during that entire fortnight
so long ago?
    When the door closed with a snick,
Lady Morgan let out a long breath. “I was beginning to think she
wouldn’t leave me. They have all developed a tendency to hover,
lately…especially my brothers. But the servants are no
better.”
    “ They are just worried
about you, my lady,” Emma said, hoping to reassure her.
    “ They’ve been worried for
far too long. And please, just call me Morgan.” She took another
bite and spilled a bit from her fork onto her lap. She frowned and
her brow furrowed. “Oh, fiddle.”
    Emma started to run around the table
to assist her, but Morgan stayed her with a hand.
    “ I can manage. I’ve been
managing for over two years. Something my brothers seem to
conveniently forget more often than not.”
    Emma didn’t know what to say to that.
Surely Morgan recognized that they were only worried about her,
that they only wanted what was best for her. Still, they might very
well smother her with their assistance if they didn’t learn to let
go. Morgan seemed entirely capable of doing a great deal on her
own, yet from what Emma could tell, someone was with her at every
moment, coddling her along like a babe just learning to walk.
Granted, she’d nearly done the same herself—but Morgan’s family had
been living with her all along. They ought to know what she could
and couldn’t do on her own.
    “ I’m sure it is quite
vexing to never have a moment to yourself,” Emma murmured for lack
of anything more appropriate coming to mind. “If I’m to call you
Morgan, you must call me Emma.”
    “ Emma,” Morgan said with a
wide grin stretching her scarred features. “Well, this is
delightful. I’ve not had a friend such as you for too long. Do you
think tomorrow afternoon we might walk through the arbor? I know
today will be filled with greeting the other guests and the like so
there won’t be time, but I should very much enjoy taking a walk
with you tomorrow.”
    “ Of course. If it is all
right with your brothers, that is.” The last thing Emma needed was
for Mr. Cardiff to glare at her again for yet another unknown
indiscretion. She couldn’t very well attract an unsuspecting,
eligible gentleman’s notice with Mr. Cardiff looking daggers at
her. It would give off a most definitively wrong impression.
    Morgan frowned. “It will be. They’ll
be distracted with all of the house party goings-on. We can easily
make our escape.”
    “ Escape?” Emma said,
laughing. “It sounds as though they might not be so accepting of
our plans if we must escape.”
    Leaning across the table, Morgan
lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Won’t it be more exciting,
though? I dreadfully need a little excitement in my
life.”
    If the girl couldn’t take two steps
without someone racing to her assistance, Emma could well imagine
that to be the case. “Indeed you do,” she said slowly. In all the
time of their acquaintance, Emma had never known Morgan to have
anything worth becoming excited about in her life. Three years ago,
she’d been so despondent.
    She finished off the last few cold
bites of her shirred eggs and followed it with a sip of her
chocolate, all the while staring at her new friend across the
table. Here, with the morning light coming through the eastern
windows, her scars were more pronounced than ever—red and angry, so
visible she could almost see the blisters which must have marred
her skin. “Morgan?” she asked tentatively. Never, in a thousand
lifetimes, should she dare to ask what she was about to. But she
couldn’t seem to stop herself. “What…what happened?”
    “ The scars and the
blindness, you mean?” Morgan ate her last

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