Violet (Flower Trilogy) by Lauren Royal Read Free Book Online

her. He’s a boy.’’
    ‘‘Oh.’’ His niece was silent a moment as they reached the Thames and turned to ride alongside it.
    ‘‘What do you call him, then?’’
    ‘‘Galileo.’’
    ‘‘Gali-who?’’
    ‘‘Galileo. Have you never heard of him? He was born in the last century, though he lived into this one.’’
    ‘‘Was he a horse?’’
    ‘‘No.’’ Ford choked back a laugh. ‘‘He was an astronomer and a physicist and a mathematician.’’
    ‘‘That sounds boring.’’
    ‘‘Oh, but it isn’t.’’ Sunlight glimmered off the water, a beautiful morning to visit. Ford was sure this meeting would end better than yesterday’s. ‘‘Galileo invented a horse-driven water pump, and a military compass, and something called a thermometer that measures hot and cold. And a much better telescope than the one invented before it.’’
    ‘‘Like the one in your laboratory?’’
    ‘‘Well, that one is called a reflecting telescope. ’Tis a newer one, invented by another man named Isaac Newton, only about five years ago. But he wouldn’t have invented it if Galileo hadn’t invented his telescope first.
    That’s the way science works. And with his telescope, Galileo discovered moons around Jupiter—’’
    ‘‘Auntie Kendra told me about Jupiter. But not moons.’’

    ‘‘She was talking about the Roman god.’’ Knowing his twin, she’d likely regaled the innocent girl with bloody tales of Jupiter slaying poor souls with thunderbolts. ‘‘I’m talking about the planet.’’
    ‘‘Like Earth?’’
    ‘‘But much bigger. I can show you with my telescope. And I can show you Saturn, too, which has rings around it. Galileo was the first to notice those.’’
    ‘‘That doesn’t sound boring.’’
    Behind her, he smiled. ‘‘ ’Tis wonderful, I assure you. Did you know all the planets go around the sun?’’
    ‘‘Mama told me that.’’
    ‘‘Well, another man named Nicolas Copernicus thought so first, but Galileo wrote a book to explain it.’’
    ‘‘Galileo is lucky,’’ she said. ‘‘Your horse, I mean.
    To be named after a special man.’’ She leaned forward to stroke the animal’s jet-black mane, which matched her own dark, wavy tresses. ‘‘Rowan is named for a tree.’’
    ‘‘Did he tell you so?’’
    ‘‘No. He wouldn’t talk to me.’’ Ford could hear the pout in her voice. ‘‘But when you were out of the room, his sister told me that in her family, the girls are named for flowers and the boy is named for a tree.’’
    ‘‘That is because their father loves to garden,’’ he told her as Trentingham Manor came into view. A wide lawn studded with shade trees sat between the river and the sprawling, red-brick mansion, its uneven skyline and irregular patterned brickwork the result of a century of alterations. In the extensive gardens set around it, Ford spotted a well-dressed man fiddling with a rose bush. ‘‘In fact,’’ he said, ‘‘I’d wager that’s Lord Trentingham there now.’’
    Ford hadn’t seen the Earl of Trentingham in quite a few years, but as they rode nearer across the lawn, he could see where Rowan had inherited his looks.

    The earl’s black hair glistened in the warm summer sun. He looked up, raising a hand to swipe his sweat-slicked brow.
    ‘‘Who goes there?’’ he asked when Ford reined in beside him.
    ‘‘Viscount Lakefield, my lord. Ford, to you.’’ Ford slid off Galileo, taking Jewel with him. ‘‘And my niece, Lady Jewel Chase.’’ The moment he set her on her feet, she raced to a nearby fountain, thrusting her hands into the spurting water.
    The earl narrowed his emerald green eyes. ‘‘Eh?’’
    ‘‘A long time since we’ve met, my lord.’’ Smiling, Ford held out a hand.
    Though the man shook it warmly, he still looked perplexed. ‘‘What? What did you say?’’
    Too late Ford remembered Violet had mentioned her father was hard of hearing. ‘‘Ford Chase!’’ he fairly