Sybille's Lord by Raven McAllan Read Free Book Online

fondness for her. He paid
no more attention to her than any other young lady in the ton, perhaps less. It
wasn’t enough. She’d been non-committal, and merely promised to think about it.
Which she had, frequently. Even though his attention had not seemed to be any
more determined than before he approached her parents. If anything Sybille
sometimes thought it less. If she hadn’t noticed a glint and a determination
when he looked at her and thought no one looking, and the way his jaw
tightened, she could have thought him indifferent to her to the point of
dislike, and her parents mistaken in his intentions.
    “I
know and I promised I would think of it,” she said to Mijo on several occasions.
“Which, when I have time, I will do so.”
    “Ahem.”
So engrossed in her thoughts, she’d forgotten Thom. “Why not agree now? As your
affianced I could protect and help you.”
    “As
my friend you can do the same thing,” Sybille answered swiftly. “Is your help dependent
on my answering your offer in the affirmative?‘
      “Good heavens, no.” Thom sounded horrified and
Sybille was immediately ashamed of her unworthy thoughts. He wouldn’t act like
that. “You wound me, my dear.” There was no twinkle in his eye, just a
painful—to her—bleakness.
    “Oh
lud, I’m sorry.” She stood up and put her hand on his arm in entreaty. “Thomas.”
    He
shook her hand off as if it was contagious. Sybille realized she might have
just lost a friend. My big mouth, when
will I learn to think before I speak?
    “My
lord, forgive me. If I say I’m overwrought, it’s an understatement. And I have to
admit to being foolish. That is something that will sit badly with me.” She
rolled her shoulders. “I hate being in the wrong.”
    “Don’t
we all?” His voice was once more level, but to her shame and dismay it held
none of his usual friendliness   “And you
have nothing to be forgiven for. Why should you trust me? What have I given to
you to ensure that?”
    “Ah
Thomas, so much, and I didn’t realize.” If only she’d accepted he was honestly
open to help her perhaps she wouldn’t be in this mess now. “I truly am sorry.
If you think about it, I must trust you or else I would not be here.”
    “Thom,
never Thomas,” Thom said emphatically. “When I hear that, I expect my tutor to appear
and give me five of the best.”
    The
look on his face as he screwed his eyes up was priceless. She giggled as she guessed
he meant her to. It seemed he didn’t hold grudges. “Thom then. Right, bear with
me. I need to go back many years. To when Maman and Papa wed. He gave her a
magnificent string of pearls as a betrothal gift. They loop around her neck
twice and still reach to her…” She took a deep breath, “To around her navel.”
      Thom nodded.
    Sybille
guessed he had seen Mijo in the pearls and noticed how they led the eyes downward.
To where, her sister Tessa had told her, some gentlemen of a poetic bent would
say, was her pearl of beauty.
    “A
fine string,” he said non-committally. A strange note, almost one of studied
indifference, alerted her.
    “You
know something about the string?” she asked. It was difficult to know how to
phrase the question without giving too much away. In case he was sounding her
out.
    “It’s
fake,” Thom said matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry.”
    Her
jaw dropped. “You knew?”
    “I
knew.” His eyes darkened and she looked away rather than see what expression
was on his face.
    “Oh
lud, does everyone in the ton know?” Sybille couldn’t begin to think how her
parents would feel if their deception was general knowledge.
    “No
one except me, I would think, unless your parents have chosen to confide in
someone else. Why?”
    She
waved her hands in the air. Thom ducked one long fingernail. “I’m not the
messenger, don’t harm me.”
    “Oh.
Sorry.” She’d missed his cheek by inches. “Why? Because it would kill my
parents.”
    “Don’t
be dramatic. After all they