Love According To Lily by Julianne MacLean Read Free Book Online Page A

rest, he would do it. He could easily put a spell on Lily and be the victor in winning her attention tonight.
    But that was his competitive nature talking, he told himself. If there was a beautiful woman in the room, he couldn’t help but flirt with her, which is what had just happened with Lily. He had merely gotten swept up in the game and had forgotten who she was.
    He supposed he didn’t really know who Lily was any more. He had known once, of course. He’d played with her for years when she was a girl. He’d enjoyed those games. But when she grew too old for pony rides on his back, there wasn’t much left between them. What did a twenty-six-year-old man say to a fourteen-year-old girl, after all? They’d simply stopped talking to each other, and except for the brief day he’d spent in her company when they took her away from Pierre, this present shooting party was the first time they’d actually had a conversation.
    And it had been very different. She was a woman now, and she had been flirting with him.
    Still trying to ignore the fatigue that seemed slightly more relentless tonight, he ran a hand through his hair and promised himself he would be more careful next time and try not to be distracted by the way Lily looked. She was still “little Lily,” and she was not someone he could toy with. If he did, James would likely slice him up into cubes and feed him to the dogs for breakfast.
    At least that would bring a swift end to things.

 
    Chapter 5
      
    “I don’t understand it.” Lily said to Sophia later that evening after the dancing had begun. “He flirted with me earlier. He implied he was going to dance with me, but he’s been ignoring me completely. This is even worse than it was before. He’s never outright avoided me before. Maybe I was too forward.”
    Lily and Sophia walked around the perimeter of the green saloon, where the guests were dancing informally to a polka. There were no dance cards this evening. It was an intimate party and all the guests knew each other too well for such formalities.
    Whitby wasn’t dancing, however. He was leaning against the wall in the corner, talking to some of the gentlemen.
    “Perhaps,” Sophia said, “he’s avoiding you because he did feel something and he’s uncomfortable with it. Think of his friendship with James, after all. Whitby would surely have some reservations about flirting with his best friend’s younger sister.”
    Lily sighed heavily. “Then why am I even bothering? If he could never do that to James, then I—”
    “Oh, Lily, don’t give up yet. You were so happy and excited earlier. Something obviously sparked between the two of you. He just needs to get used to the idea and come around to see that it doesn’t have to be impossible. If he wants you badly enough, he can make it happen. James would not be unreasonable. Remember, you have me on your side.”
    “Whitby doesn’t look like he wants me very badly right now. Look at him. He hasn’t even glanced in this direction. He looks completely bored.”
    Sophia looked at Whitby. She had no answer.
    Just then, Lord Richard approached. “Lady Lily, would you care to take to the floor?”
    Lily had to shift her thinking and force herself to forget her disappointment. She smiled warmly. “I’d be delighted.”
    He led her into the middle of the room and they skipped off into the bouncing insanity of the polka. Everyone was laughing and howling, as it was past midnight and significant amounts of wine and brandy had been consumed.
    The dance ended and Lily laughed with Richard, both of them out of breath. “We almost knocked your father over just now,” she said. “I thought we were surely going to collide.”
    “Me, too. What a night. I can’t say I’ve ever had so much fun. The duchess certainly knows how to entertain.”
    “There was a time,” Lily replied, “when our shooting parties were frightfully dull. That was before James married Sophia. When Mother was in