Healing Miss Millworth

HEALING MISS MILLWORTH THE SEDGEWICK LADIES BOOK II ISABELLA THORNE Mikita Associates CONTENTS Part I Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Part II Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Part III Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Part IV Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Epilogue Sign up for my VIP Reader List! Next book in The Sedgewick Ladies Series Also By Isabella Thorne Sneak Peek The Duke’s Winter Promise PART I CHAPTER 1 Miss Ellen Millworth paused for a single moment in the dim foyer of her home, as she returned from Lady Arabella Sedgewick’s home. She took the extra time to fix a careful smile on her face. Her parents, she knew, would immediately and unconsciously search her expression the moment they set eyes upon her, and she would not for the world, cause them distress by showing anything but a pleasant smile. She could not recall a time in her life before where she had needed to school her expression into a smile. Indeed, according to family lore, she had been smiling almost since the moment of her birth. But these last few months had brought a great many new and unpleasant experiences to her door, and having to order herself to smile was hardly the worst of her trials, she supposed. “Oh, there you are darling, back from your visit with Arabella already?” Her mother, Mrs. Millworth, exclaimed, rising hastily the moment that Ellen stepped into the cozy parlor. “I had thought that you meant to spend the entire afternoon with the Sedgewicks.” She poked her needle into her embroidery and put it aside to talk to her daughter. How many times she did that, Ellen thought idly, put things aside for her. Moreso, lately, she realized. Ellen pulled off her gloves and sat down with her mother. The room smelled like rosewood and the honeysuckle candles that were burning on the mantelpiece. The fire added an earthy, smoky smell. “Arabella and I had a lovely visit, Mama,” she said, “but we had to cut it short because the earl was called away unexpectedly and needed Arabella to entertain some visitors of his,” Ellen explained, taking a seat near her mother. “Marianne offered to keep them occupied, but you know, Arabella is far too generous to allow her to suffer all afternoon, knowing how Marianne despises small talk.” Ellen gave a small shiver and her mother noticed right away. “I’ll ring for some tea,” she said. “You are no doubt chilled to the bone. It won’t do for you to come down with an ague after all your trials.” Ellen did not want to speak of her trials. She nodded, anxious to hold a teacup, which would give her something to do with her hands. Tea had become a daily ritual with her mother since Ellen was able to sit without randomly bursting into tears when thinking about her ordeal. She tried to put the matter and the man from her mind, but she could not suppress the shiver that accompanied the thought. “It is cold outside,” Ellen agreed. Tea would certainly warm her, but it was not cold that made her shiver. She didn’t want to talk about her encounter with Sir James Randall, as her mother was wont to call it. The euphemism did not sit well with her. It wasn’t an encounter or an incident. It was a kidnapping, although she had been somewhat complicit, she supposed. How could she ever have imagined herself in love with the villain? She felt soiled, just thinking of him. She shoved the thought away, changing the subject before her mother could go on about her victimhood. She couldn’t bear it. She would concentrate on her friend and her friend’s wedding, which was approaching with some speed. “Marianne may as well start becoming accustomed to entertaining Lord Sedgewick’s visitors now. The task will fall to her as soon as Arabella and Lord Willingham are married,” Ellen said, keeping the conversation firmly on her best friend’s events and not her own. “Yes. I suppose that is true,” Mrs. Millworth observed, in the indulgent tone in which she always spoke of the Sedgewick sisters. “Although, I daresay Arabella thinks to spare her as long as she can. I know she has resolved to stop shielding everyone from unpleasantness, but it’s quite the long-standing habit with her, isn’t it, to coddle her younger sisters?” Ellen smiled. It was interesting her mother recognized the tendency in another and yet saw none of the coddling she herself did. “I rather think it is more than a habit, for it seems to me to be a part of her very character,” Ellen agreed, smiling genuinely at her mother now, and at the thought of her cousin and dearest friend, who had a tendency to shoulder the weight of the world as a matter of course. “Fortunately, I believe that Lord Willingham will help her find a sort of balance in that sort of thing. He adores her so. It is difficult for him to stand by idly and watch her put herself last.” “I must say, I am happy that your cousin Arabella found such a dear boy,” Mother said as she poured the tea. “Hardly a boy, Mama.” Ellen stirred some cream and an inordinate amount of sugar into her cup. “He is a dear boy, if I may be allowed to refer to a grown, to say nothing of titled, gentleman in such a manner. I am constantly delighted those two have found one another, aren’t you?” “I am,” Ellen agreed, taking a sip of the hot tea which warmed her. She kept her fingers wrapped around the cup. “How are preparations coming along for…” Mrs. Millworth suddenly trailed