The Lass Who Kissed a Frog by Lee, Caroline (big ebook reader .TXT) 📗

With a curt nod, Roland shook his younger brother’s hand. “I’ll see ye soon.”

“Certainly.” Phin allowed his smile to bloom. “Ye’re welcome to visit and see my collection of Roman sphaera anytime.”

“Och, man. I’ve got better things to do with my time than to drop by and handle yer balls!”

Chuckling, his brother wheeled his horse down the lane. “My balls are quite a lot of fun to handle, but only while wearing gloves.”

“And under a magnifying glass!” called Roland, unable to resist poking fun at his brother’s hobbies.

“They’re magnificent, ye rotter!”

Phineas’s laughter floated up the lane and caused Roland to smile. But testicle-size-jokes aside, he soon recalled his mission. As the sun sank further in the west, and a chill wind picked up, Roland’s stomach tightened once more.

Ruin her future?

He didn’t want that, did he? But his plan was a good one and would make her realize the errors of her ways.

In fact, he might argue he was saving her future. By helping her see and acknowledge her own glaring faults, he would be helping her to fix them before she went marriage hunting again.

Oh, she wouldn’t be marrying him, but whomever she approached next—or whichever poor sod was unlucky enough to fall for the spell of her beauty—would never see the darkness of her heart.

Thanks to him.

Chapter 3

“This is it! This is when it all starts coming together—my favorite part of this job!”

“Do calm down, Grisel. This much enthusiasm is unseemly in a member of the Guild of Godmothers.”

“Wrong! Wrong, Evangeline! Godmothers are supposed to be enthusiastic about their work! I read The Book too, ye’ll recall! And I cannae help being excited, because this is Willa’s first assignment—ye’re doing swimmingly by the way, dear—and we’re about to see poor Roland set his plan into motion!”

“Yes, yes. Willa is doing good work. But Grisel, ye really need to calm down a bit. The way you’re waving your arms all over, I’m concerned you’re going to knock the crystal ball—”

* * *

The week following their tea at Newfincy Castle, Vanessa and Bonnie were hiding in the garden. Not the inn’s formal garden which Mother hired someone to tend to every Monday afternoon during the warmer months so the guests would always have a pristinely landscaped natural retreat. No, this was the small garden off the kitchens where Ember used to hang the laundry, and where the girls had always escaped to when necessary. The bushes were overgrown, and the herbs were the most important plants.

And of course, there was the well.

Since she was a little girl, Vanessa had always been fascinated by the old well; with its moss-covered stones and ivy growing up the posts. She’d been convinced it was the home of fairies at one point, but now she knew it just contained frogs.

Which was pretty much a metaphor for her life these days.

“Are ye certain she didn’t see us escape out here?” Bonnie murmured worriedly.

Vanessa waved her hand as she settled on the cool stones, knowing she’d cleaned them well enough there was no chance of dirtying her skirts and hearing her mother’s anger later. “I told ye, she was busy berating Annie in the front parlor. We should be safe for a half hour at least.”

With a sigh, her sister settled onto her favorite bench and plopped her book on her lap. “I don’t think either of us realized just how much Ember did for us until she left.”

Vanessa nodded mournfully. “I honestly had nae idea so much work went into keeping the inn running. I ken Ember mostly attended to us and Mother—”

“At least ye’re willing to help with the washing these days,” Bonnie teased, flipping through her pages and looking for her bookmark. “Mother has the maids running ragged from adding on all the new chores now that Ember’s gone.”

“Well, we cannae verra well force the lasses to work double without more pay, can we?”

“Why no’? That is what we expected from Ember, was it no’?”

Vanessa sighed and rested her head against the ivy-covered post. “Aye,” she murmured, the knot of shame still twisting her gut.

It seemed she had plenty to be ashamed of these days.

When Ember’s father had married Mother—second marriages for both of them—Vanessa had been thrilled to get another sister. But, as Mother explained, Ember wasn’t a lady. She wasn’t important. Therefore, after her father’s death, it was perfectly natural to give Ember more responsibilities—of the dirty, back-breaking kind—to make sure she had her own place in the world.

It wasn’t until she’d left that Vanessa truly understood what that meant. Mother had used Ember as an unpaid drudge, and their stepsister had accepted the role, until she could break free.

Now Mother was frantically trying to get by—at the same level of ease and comfort as before—without having to pay another worker. This meant Vanessa and Bonnie were taking on more tasks and avoiding Mother’s anger when she realized her precious princesses were being forced to work.

“Well?” Vanessa prodded, closing her eyes. “Get on with it.”

Her sister chuckled. “Ye will make a great lady in a castle someday. Mother’s lessons in imperiousness have worked. Where were we? Oh, aye, The Frog Princess.”

As Bonnie read the old fairy tale, Vanessa allowed her mind to wander. A great lady in a castle? That had been her dream.

But the dream had changed when she’d danced with Roland Prince. Oh, she’d danced with him because he was a viscount, but she’d begun dreaming about a forever with him after she’d felt the tingle in her arm from his touch, and the way the sparkle in his warm hazel eyes made her breathless. And when he’d leaned in, close enough she thought he might kiss her, Vanessa had almost swallowed her tongue in anticipation.

Aye, Roland had become her dream, and not because he had a castle and almost five thousand pounds yearly.

Although, of course, that helped. At least where Mother was concerned.

But the way he’d treated her at tea last