Lady in Red Read Online Free

was fun to string cranberries and place ivy about the house or prepare cake and surprises for each birthday, she was quite ready for something more substantial. After all, she was almost fifteen and nearly a woman grown.
    Beaming, she made her way to the pianoforte to stand beside Honoria. Shorter than Honoria by several inches and not nearly as pretty as Cassandra or Juliet, Olivia tried to make up for her lack of presence with a convincing determination to eschew feminine frivolity. She instead aspired to a more exciting lifestyle, like the one their oldest brother possessed.
    Olivia lifted an ink-stained scrap of paper and frowned at it with an important air, her dark head bent over the figures. “I’ve worked out our weekly expenses and figured in our income from both Father’s jointure and the monies he and Ned have sent. Then I compiled a list of all of our expenses and—”
    “Oh pother!” Portia flounced in her seat, her hazel eyes flashing annoyance. “We don’t need to hear how you established our accounts. We just want to know how they stand.”
    Olivia frowned at this interruption. “And I plan on telling you as soon as I explain how I came about getting the figures.”
    “Portia, please allow Olivia do this her own way,” Honoria said. “She has spent hours getting things organized.”
    Honoria nodded for Olivia to continue and hoped Portia’s interruption didn’t add too much to what was sure to be a long-winded report. Every time Ned wrote from India , where he was currently residing with Father in search of a way to recoup their recent losses, Olivia would soak in the letter, poring over each and every detail Ned let fall. Then she’d spend the next two weeks moping about because her life wasn’t nearly as exciting as his.
    Olivia would have given her eye teeth to be able to travel about the world, indulging in the adventures Ned portrayed in his infrequent letters. Honoria rather suspected that her brother, like Father, skimmed over the more unsavory details of their travels… like the sanitary aspects of some of the places they stayed and the indigestible food they were sometimes forced to eat. Neither were things that held any appeal to Honoria; she liked her clean sheets and well-roasted meat, thank-you-very-much. And she definitely didn’t look forward to facing the great unknown. There was a good deal to be said about the comforts of a well-run homeland surrounding yourself with the people you loved.
    Portia settled back in her chair. “Yes, well, I liked it better when Ned was here to do the treasurer’s report. He always went straight to the point.”
    Juliet looked up from her needlework, the light from the small fire dancing across her ripe golden curls. At sixteen, she was bidding fair to rival Cassandra in beauty, though Juliet possessed none of her elder sister’s placid disposition. “Ned never went straight to the point. And he was forever salting his report with sea phrases, half of which I didn’t understand.”
    Ned, who was the closest in age to Honoria, had at the tender age of sixteen served on a sailing vessel for two years under the auspices of their uncle, Captain Porterfield Baker-Sneed. Uncle Porterfield sailed under the flag of the Royal Navy and was a crusty, rough-spoken sailor who was supremely confident at sea and filled with lusty excitement at the thought of a battle, but was reduced to a mass of quivering bread pudding at the mere thought of spending a week on shore wearing a cravat and making polite talk to his nieces.
    Juliet smiled her encouragement to Olivia. “I daresay you will be a better treasurer than Ned. He was forever making errors in his figures, and twice we overspent merely because he said there was extra in the accounts and there were not.”
    Olivia beamed. “I made no mistakes. Indeed, I checked the figures twice and even cross-referenced the—”
    “Yes, I am sure you did,” Honoria said smoothly. “And how are we doing this