Free The Lavender Garden by Lucinda Riley Page A

The vet may be able to save her,” Sebastian said, doing his best to comfort her.
    One look at the vet’s grave face was enough to tell Emilie what her professional eye already knew.
    “I’m very sorry, mademoiselle, but she has sustained serious internal injuries. We could try operating, but she is old and very weak. Perhaps it’s simply best for us to help her pass away comfortably. It’s what you would advise a client of yours, is it not?” he suggested gently.
    “Yes.” Emilie nodded miserably. “Of course.”
    Twenty minutes later, having kissed Frou-Frou a last good-bye as the vet injected her and her small body gave a final twitch of surrender, a devastated Emilie emerged and walked shakily up the steps from the practice, holding on to Sebastian’s arm for support.
    “My mother adored her and I promised I would take care of her and—”
    “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get you home,” Sebastian said as he led her toward the car.
    Emilie, catatonic with guilt and emotion, sat next to him as hedrove. They walked through the kitchen door and she sat down at the table, resting her head on her forearms in despair.
    “I can’t even take care of one small dog! I’m hopeless, just as my mother always told me! I can’t get anything right, nothing. And I’m the last in the line of such a great noble family! So many heroes, including my father, and look at me—I’m useless!”
    As all the pain of her mother’s disappointment in her poured out, Emilie sobbed like a child, her head buried in her own arms for comfort.
    When she eventually looked up, she saw Sebastian was sitting quietly at the table, watching her.
    “Please,” she exclaimed, immediately embarrassed at her outburst, “forgive me, I’m . . . a mess! And I always have been,” she choked out.
    Sebastian stood up slowly, walked around the table, then bent down on his haunches and offered her a handkerchief to wipe her dripping nose. “Emilie, Ipromise you, the picture that you have of yourself, which is obviously taken from your mother’s point of view, is completely inaccurate. For what it’s worth”—he smiled as he moved a lock of hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear—“having only just met you, I think that you’re a brave, strong, and intelligent woman. Not to mention beautiful.”
    “Beautiful!” Emilie looked at him with ridicule in her eyes. “Really, Sebastian, I appreciate your trying to make me feel better, but barefaced lies only patronize me. I am not ‘beautiful’!”
    “And I suppose that too is something your mother told you?”
    “Yes, but it’s true,” she said with force.
    “Well, forgive me for voicing my own opinion, but I thought it the day I first set eyes on you. And as for being a ‘failure,’ well, I’ve never heard such rot in my life. From what I’ve seen so far, you’ve handled what would have sent other people into total despair with amazing strength. And you’ve done it virtually alone. Emilie, listen to me,” Sebastian pleaded. “Whatever your mother’s attitude toward you was, you really must not see yourself through her eyes. Because, my darling, she was wrong. Very wrong. And now she’s gone and it’s your turn. She can’t hurt you anymore, she really can’t. Come here.”
    Sebastian reached for her and pulled her into his arms. He held her tightly against him, and she continued to sob into his shoulder. “I promise you, everything’s going to be fine. And I’m here if you need me to be.”
    She looked up. “But you hardly know me! How can you say all these things?”
    “Well”—Sebastian chuckled—“I suppose it’s been a pretty dramatic couple of days. And I’m sure that if I’d met you in Paris and we’d just gone out for a few dinners, I wouldn’t feel as qualified to have an opinion. But adversity can sometimes reap positive rewards. Barriers that normally take weeks are broken through much faster. And I think I understand you. And I’d like