Charmed Vengeance

Charmed Vengeance by Suzanne Lazear Read Free Book Online

Book: Charmed Vengeance by Suzanne Lazear Read Free Book Online
Authors: Suzanne Lazear
Tags: Teen Paranormal
girls live here, I thought I’d see the new art and you . It’s been ages since I’ve visited.”
    “Oh, V was talking about the museum. Something about a collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings he’d like to see.” She grinned. V had a mild obsession with Dutch painters.
    Grandfather nodded. “There are some very nice paintings there, as well as some lovely antiquities. I could do without the exhibit on faeries.” He made a face as if he’d eaten something bad. “Bah, why must grown men believe in such things? There is a rather beautiful gem, such an extraordinary color, even if it having once belonged to a faery queen is complete fable.”
    “It’s probably a tale told to give a bit of pretty glass value,” Noli replied. Odds were that’s exactly what happened. Most of the artists and writers got the details about the Fae folk wrong, just like many of the artifacts “proving” their existence were fabrications.
    “Here, let me take your hat and coat and I’ll light a lamp in the parlor.” Noli hung his hat and coat on the seldom used rack by the door. She walked into the parlor, which she always kept neat and mostly dust-free, just in case. Like everything else in the house it had seen better days. Noli lit a single gas lamp on the wall. Because, of the cost they mostly used candle lamps. Perhaps she’d start a fire in the seldom-used fire place. Wait, they had no wood.
    Grandfather Montgomery looked around the dimly lit parlor and frowned.
    “Have a seat, Grandfather. I’ll bring tea.” Noli put a hand on her mother’s arm in reassurance. Him arriving spontaneously and discovering the situation they’d so carefully hidden from him must devastate her.
    Noli got the silver tea service out, hoping it wasn’t too tarnished and the good china. They had no cookies to put with the tea. She poured the last of the milk and the brown sugar into the proper containers and arraigned everything on the silver tray. Taking a deep breath, she carried the tray out to the sitting room, trying to smile like she was glad he’d come.
    “Eady, please tell me your servants have the day off and my eyes are getting old.” Her grandfather’s voice was kind, concerned. “I’ve heard the most dreadful tales, that you and Noli are living alone and in poverty, and that you’ve actually taken up a trade. But I hadn’t believed it or I would’ve come sooner.”
    Where would he hear such things? Then again, not everyone had the aversion to airships her mother did. Someone could have run into him at a party in Boston— or even while he was traveling on business. It wasn’t as if all of Los Angeles society didn’t know of their situation.
    Noli set the tray on the low table. “I … I’ll leave so you may talk.”
    Her mother’s hand caught her. She looked into Noli’s eyes. They said stay. Noli nodded and took a seat on the uncomfortable rose-covered settee, since her grandfather and mother occupied the two matching chairs. Everything in the room smelled faintly of disuse.
    Mama, ever the lady, poured the tea. In the lamplight she looked older, rings around her usually jolly eyes, the faint wrinkles on her pale skin more pronounced, though she still looked beautiful. Like a fine lady. Yet tonight, even her chestnut waves looked duller in its simple coif.
    “Is it that dreadful for a woman to have her own business?” Her mother handed grandfather a cup of tea.
    “You’re a lady, not a woman. Also, owning it is one thing, actually engaging in the trade is something else.” He went to add sugar to his tea and frowned.
    “I’m sorry, we’re out of white sugar,” Noli muttered. “Yes, I opened a shop. But it’s doing well.” Her mother added milk and sugar to her own tea. Noli gripped her dainty cup, not adding either.
    Grandfather’s dark eyebrows rose, his hair the same color as her mother’s, with only a touch of gray, which added elegance. “Well? Eady, if your shop was doing well you wouldn’t be

Similar Books

The Muffia

Ann Royal Nicholas

Erik Handy

Hell of the Dead

Dating Kosher

Michaela Greene

The Anger of God

Paul C. Doherty

Prowlers: Wild Things

Christopher Golden

Relatively Risky

Pauline Baird Jones