Read Online An Affair of the Heart by Joan Smith - Free Book Online

Claymore in his curricle. Wanda, after all, was as well as engaged. So Missie was happy in the knowledge that she would have a famous outing. She and Ellie were bosom-bows in spite of the two years that separated them. It was largely Missie’s approval, in fact, that led Rex to consider her such a right ‘un.
    At the last moment Mrs. Homberly was hit with the marvelous notion of Missie going in Claymore’s carriage as far as the Wanderleys’. Claymore was not caught in the parson’s mousetrap yet, and who was to say he wouldn’t as lief have Missie as Ellie. Obviously he was not looking about for a lady of fashion. Unaware of the reason for this slight modification of plan, Missie hopped happily into the curricle, and proceeded to amuse Claymore with a recital of how she planned to be an actress when she grew up, which whiled away the time very gaily for both. Clay congratulated her on her interesting choice of career, and asked nonchalantly if her mama knew of it.
    “No, no one but Miss Ellie knows, for we are very good friends. I had hoped she might come to London with me, but I suppose now...”
    “Has Miss Ellie different plans then?”
    “But of course she has. That is ... well, she very likely will have, if you make her an offer.”
    A startled brown eye was lifted from the road long enough to show Clay’s astonishment. “Make her an offer!”
    “That is why you’re here, isn’t it? At least Mama thinks it is, and I must say, I don’t know why else you would come to the Abbey, for there is nothing here to amuse an out-and-outer like you. Yes, and I am sure Rex said you came to make an offer to Miss Wanderley. Ellie is Miss Wanderley, even if no one calls her that. Besides, it can’t be Wanda, for she is practically engaged, because, of course, she is so much prettier.”
    “No, you exaggerate the matter. She has said nothing to me about being on the verge of an engagement.”
    “Why should she?It’s Ellie you’re dangling after.”
    “No, it is not.”
    “Oh.” Missie looked moderately surprised. “But it can’t be Wanda. And why are you taking Ellie to Needford if it is Wanda you fancy?”
    “You misunderstand the matter. It is Wanda I am taking to Needford.”
    “What?” Missie demanded, deeply offended at this trick. “You mean Ellie is not coming? If I’d known that, I should have stayed at home. It won’t be any fun with Wanda.”
    Clay heard the blunt exclamation with outward calm, and asked on what that assumption was based.
    “I hoped we might have a curricle race.Rex says he has sixteen-mile-an-hour horses, and I was sure we would have a race. But if Wanda is along, she will not want to go fast, for it will ruin her hair, or give her freckles, or some such thing.”
    “Your mama would not appreciate our racing with ladies in the curricle,” he comforted her. “Not quite the thing, you know.”
    “No, but I wouldn’t care, and neither would Ellie. So Ellie is not to come at all, then? I wonder ifRex would mind if I stayed behind at the Wanderleys’. Then he needn’t go dragging off to Needford at all, and you can take me back to the Abbey with you, which will please Mama.”
    Clay bit back a smile at her artlessness. “A pity you hadn’t sent a note ahead asking Ellie to come with you. Your brother mentioned it last night, and there would be room in his curricle, I think.”
    “DidRex mention it? Well then, I shall ask her when we get there.”
    “She won’t be ready.”
    “Pooh! How long will it take her to throw on a hat and a pelisse?”
    “Quite a while, if she is in the state she was in the other day, covered with mud and messing around in flower pots.”
    “That’s true. I hadn’t thought of that. But if she is clean, I shall ask her to come.”
    The young lady’s physical state of readiness was not immediately evident upon their arrival, for she was nowhere to be seen. Was, in fact, sulking in her room, determined not to be hanging about like an unwanted