Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
And no, this wasn’t about maybe catching Battle at breakfast.
It definitely was not.
(Okay, it was, but I didn’t want it to be.)
Last night I’d learned he might be arrogant, and a player, with broad hints of dick, but he was also a devoted older brother.
He didn’t say much, but outside of curtailing Temperance’s character assassination of Ravenna, he not only gave them all the space to be who they were, the way he did it encouraged that same thing.
So…yeah.
I had no idea what he was playing at with me.
But he was a super cool brother, as much as I didn’t want to admit it.
On this thought, I turned back to Snowball.
“Should we face the day?” I asked.
As answer, she gracefully leapt over me, as well as the side of the bed, and I watched her fluffy butt with lifted-high floofy tail saunter toward the bathroom.
I smiled, tossed the covers back and muttered, “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Thus, I swung out of bed and followed Snowball.
Thankfully, I’d learned the lesson a long time ago that I endeavored to teach Prudence last night.
Therefore, when I arrived at the breakfast table, I was wearing a pair of wide-legged, cropped white jeans, a slouchy, soft beige sweater French tucked, and a pair of peanut suede booties with a stacked block heel and pointed toe that had a slight Western flair in the panel stitching.
Yes, I looked like a well-heeled American (or at least I thought that was the look I was pulling off), because I was one.
Battle, fortunately (unfortunately?), was not at the breakfast table.
No one was.
But Prudence.
And God, I loved this chick.
Today she was wearing a black turtleneck that had the addition of a collar coming out of it that rose up over her ears giving her a petite female Count Dracula look.
That was all I could see since she was seated, but it was enough to absolutely adore it…and her for wearing it.
“Good morning,” I greeted while entering.
“Vivi!” she cried. “How did you sleep?”
“Snowball hogged the bed,” I told her as I sat next to her and reached for the ornate silver coffee pot.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed. “Do I need to lock her up? I don’t usually lock up my babies. They don’t like it. But you need to sleep.”
This made me pause in pouring, because, when I returned to my room last night, I’d closed my door.
I resumed pouring as I asked, “I closed my door, how did she get in?”
Prudence made a puh noise. “It drives Battie…well, batty.” She laughed. “But they’ve learned to open the doors. You have to lock them to keep them out. Though, if she wants to get to you, be sure to lock the door to the hallway in your dressing room too.”
“I don’t mind her joining me,” I said, putting the coffee down and reaching for the jug of creamer. Once I poured, I turned to her. “Do I get to meet the others?”
Her eyes lit with excitement. “You like animals?”
“Love them.”
“Then…absolutely,” she answered and waved a hand at the sideboard. “Oh, and just grab a plate and help yourself.”
I got up, querying, “Has everyone already come down?”
“Temperance, no. She sleeps until at least nine. Chastity, also no, she took a tray in her bedroom. And Battle, again no, he had his breakfast in the study. He has some computer meetings this morning. He’s not usually here during the week, and he works a lot, so we probably won’t see him until dinner.”
I was peeking under lids, but what she said made me stop and turn to her.
“He’s not normally here during the week?”
And no, I didn’t ask this because I was interested in all things Battle Talyn.
(But yes, I absolutely did.)
She shook her head. “No. He’s at our house in Knightsbridge. His office is in London. He usually leaves early Monday morning and returns Friday evening.”
“Every weekend he comes home?”
She nodded.
I grinned at her. “So he’s here on a Wednesday to make certain the American stranger you invited to the house doesn’t steal the Burleigh jewels.”
She returned my grin, but asserted, “Don’t be offended, Vivi. It’s not like we don’t ever have visitors, or guests who stay over. Temperance has a lot of friends. So does Battle. We have house parties. We entertain all the time.”
I noted she didn’t include her and Chastity in having “lots of friends.”
She continued, “It’s just that, to him, you were an unknown, and no matter how stridently I vouched for you, as you’ve learned, he’s protective.”
I’d sure learned that.
“I would be too if this was my legacy and I had three younger sisters,” I replied.
Though they were younger, they weren’t young.
One thing I knew about Prudence, because she told me, was that she was around my age, thirty-one (I was thirty-two). But in my research, I learned Chasitity was twenty-eight, Temperance was thirty-three, and Battle was thirty-six.