The Salbine Sisters Read Online Free

away.
    “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Lillian said as soon as Rose was out of earshot. “I should have waited until your next lesson. We can talk then.”
    “You didn’t interrupt anything,” Maddy said quickly. Waiting until her lesson would be excruciating. “We were just on our way to my chambers, so I can empty my pockets before morning prayers.”
    Lillian looked down at Maddy’s bulging pockets. “Oh.”
    “What would you like to talk to me about?” Maddy asked, hoping Lillian wouldn’t rush off.
    “Talk . . . Yes, talk.” Lillian scratched her head. “Let’s go in. I don’t want to be interrupted.” Without waiting for a reply, she pushed open the door and disappeared inside.
    Maddy followed, in time to see Lillian knock on one of the first floor study room doors and open it a crack. She closed it and moved on to the next one. “In here,” she said, waving Maddy inside. She shut the door behind Maddy. They remained standing, ignoring the four chairs around a square table. Lillian stared at Maddy and gulped.
    “Was the abbess upset about Merrin?” Maddy asked, then kicked herself. She wasn’t supposed to know about Lillian seeing the abbess.
    “No,” Lillian said. “Well, not really.”
    “Good.”
    “She wanted to know who I was with last night.”
    Maddy’s heart sank. “Oh.”
    “Talking to the abbess helped clarify things for me. About you.”
    No wonder Lillian seemed nervous. Telling someone you’d no longer share her bed was never easy, regardless of how much or little you cared for her. Maddy braced herself.
    “I realized . . .” Lillian swallowed. “I realized that I’d like to know more about you, more than how well you draw fire and . . . and how you like to be touched. I’d like to spend time with you outside your bedchamber.” She crossed her arms against her chest and gripped her robe. “But that’s probably not what you want. And that’s all right. I understand.” She turned to the door. “I won’t keep you.”
    “Wait! Please don’t go, Lillian. I want the same thing you do,” Maddy blurted, elated.
    Lillian became very still. “You do?”
    “Yes, very much. I’ve wanted to ask to see you, but I didn’t know if that’s what you want.” She longed to touch Lillian, but Lillian’s posture dissuaded her.
    “It is,” Lillian said, turning to Maddy and slowly lowering her arms.
    They stared at each other. “Would you like to meet tonight, after evening prayers?” Maddy asked, sensing that Lillian’s nerve had run its course. She’d already learned that a shy woman hid beneath the bluster.
    “Yes, I would.” Lillian’s face fell. “Oh, but I have to go to my laboratory, to prepare something for Mistress Meredith. I’d do it earlier, but I’m helping Thomas all day. It has to be tonight. She needs it.”
    So the laboratory did exist. But what would Mistress Meredith want with poison? “Would you like company?”
    Lillian hesitated, then nodded.
    “Where is it?”
    “What?”
    “Your laboratory.”
    “Oh. Why don’t you meet me outside the chapel after the service?”
    “All right.”
    Lillian cleared her throat. “Well, then.” She looked down at Maddy’s pockets. “What’s in your pockets?”
    “Nuts.”
    “Nuts?” Lillian’s brow furrowed. “All for you?”
    The morning prayer bell sounded. Maddy couldn’t resist the urge to touch Lillian any longer. She took Lillian’s hand and rubbed her thumb along the red markings on its back, markings that matched those on her own hands. Warmth flooded through her when she felt Lillian’s fingers curl around hers. “No, not for me. I’ll tell you later.”
    Lillian nodded and squeezed Maddy’s hand. “Later, then.” She turned to leave the room, but not before Maddy caught her smile.

Chapter Two
     
    M addy followed Rose to the chapel’s leftmost aisle, resisting the urge to glance at the bench where Lillian usually sat. She was already disappointed with herself for staring