Read Online First Comes Marriage by Mary Balogh - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mary Balogh
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chair.
Margaret looked as if she were cast out of marble.
“Congratulations, lad,” Mr. Bowen said with hearty good humor as he rose to his feet to offer Stephen his hand.
Stephen surged to his feet to take it.
“It is unfortunate,” Viscount Lyngate continued, “that your upbringing has not prepared you for the life that is to be yours, Merton. There is much work involved and a large number of duties and responsibilities apart from just the glamour of possessing rank and fortune. You will need a great deal of training and education, all of which I will arrange and in which I will be pleased to involve myself. We will need to remove you to Warren Hall without further delay. It is already February. It is to be hoped that by the time Easter has come and gone, you will be ready to make an appearance in London. The ton will be gathered there in large numbers, you will understand, for the Season and the parliamentary session. They will be waiting to make your acquaintance, young as you are. Can you be ready to leave tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow morning?” Stephen said, releasing Mr. Bowen’s hand in order to stare at the viscount in some astonishment. “That soon? But I—”
“Tomorrow morning, my lord?” Margaret said more firmly. Vanessa recognized the thread of steel in her voice. “Alone?”
“It is necessary, Miss Huxtable,” the viscount explained. “We have already wasted several months discovering the new Merton’s whereabouts. Easter will—”
“He is seventeen,” Margaret said. “It is quite out of the question that he go with you alone. And tomorrow ? It is impossible. There will be all sorts of preparations to make. The ton can wait to make his acquaintance.”
“I am well aware, ma’am—” the viscount began.
“Oh, I think you are not, ” Margaret told him while Vanessa and Katherine gazed from one to the other in silent fascination and Stephen lowered himself to his chair again, looking as if he might be on the verge of collapse. “My brother has never been more than a few miles from home, and yet you expect him to leave alone with you, a perfect stranger, tomorrow in order to live in a new home among people he has never met and enter upon a life that is totally unexpected and totally foreign to him?”
“Meg—” Stephen’s cheeks were suddenly flushed.
“When my father lay on his deathbed eight years ago,” Margaret said, holding up a staying hand but not removing her eyes from the viscount, “I made him a solemn promise that I would see all my siblings to adulthood and care for them until they were all old enough and able to care for themselves. I have always held that promise sacred. Stephen is going nowhere tomorrow and nowhere the next day or the day after that. Not alone anyway.”
Viscount Lyngate raised his eyebrows and looked very haughty indeed.
“I do assure you, ma’am,” he said, impatience obvious in every line of his body, “that your brother will be very well cared for indeed under my guardianship. He is one of the wealthiest men in the land, and it is imperative—”
“Under your guardianship ?” Margaret said. “I beg your pardon, my lord. Stephen is under my care even if it turns out that he is as rich as Croesus and the King of England.”
“Meg,” Stephen said, and pushed the fingers of one hand through his curls, which immediately restored themselves to their usual disorder. He looked horribly embarrassed. “I am seventeen, not seven. And I am the Earl of Merton unless this is some bizarre hoax. I had better go and find out what it is all about and learn how to do the job properly. It would be lowering to meet my peers and not have any idea how to go on. You have to agree with that.”
He looked at them all in turn.
“Stephen—” Margaret began.
But he raised a hand palm out and addressed the viscount.
“The thing is,” he said, “that we are a close-knit family, as you can see for yourself. I owe a
Margaret looked as if she were cast out of marble.
“Congratulations, lad,” Mr. Bowen said with hearty good humor as he rose to his feet to offer Stephen his hand.
Stephen surged to his feet to take it.
“It is unfortunate,” Viscount Lyngate continued, “that your upbringing has not prepared you for the life that is to be yours, Merton. There is much work involved and a large number of duties and responsibilities apart from just the glamour of possessing rank and fortune. You will need a great deal of training and education, all of which I will arrange and in which I will be pleased to involve myself. We will need to remove you to Warren Hall without further delay. It is already February. It is to be hoped that by the time Easter has come and gone, you will be ready to make an appearance in London. The ton will be gathered there in large numbers, you will understand, for the Season and the parliamentary session. They will be waiting to make your acquaintance, young as you are. Can you be ready to leave tomorrow morning?”
“Tomorrow morning?” Stephen said, releasing Mr. Bowen’s hand in order to stare at the viscount in some astonishment. “That soon? But I—”
“Tomorrow morning, my lord?” Margaret said more firmly. Vanessa recognized the thread of steel in her voice. “Alone?”
“It is necessary, Miss Huxtable,” the viscount explained. “We have already wasted several months discovering the new Merton’s whereabouts. Easter will—”
“He is seventeen,” Margaret said. “It is quite out of the question that he go with you alone. And tomorrow ? It is impossible. There will be all sorts of preparations to make. The ton can wait to make his acquaintance.”
“I am well aware, ma’am—” the viscount began.
“Oh, I think you are not, ” Margaret told him while Vanessa and Katherine gazed from one to the other in silent fascination and Stephen lowered himself to his chair again, looking as if he might be on the verge of collapse. “My brother has never been more than a few miles from home, and yet you expect him to leave alone with you, a perfect stranger, tomorrow in order to live in a new home among people he has never met and enter upon a life that is totally unexpected and totally foreign to him?”
“Meg—” Stephen’s cheeks were suddenly flushed.
“When my father lay on his deathbed eight years ago,” Margaret said, holding up a staying hand but not removing her eyes from the viscount, “I made him a solemn promise that I would see all my siblings to adulthood and care for them until they were all old enough and able to care for themselves. I have always held that promise sacred. Stephen is going nowhere tomorrow and nowhere the next day or the day after that. Not alone anyway.”
Viscount Lyngate raised his eyebrows and looked very haughty indeed.
“I do assure you, ma’am,” he said, impatience obvious in every line of his body, “that your brother will be very well cared for indeed under my guardianship. He is one of the wealthiest men in the land, and it is imperative—”
“Under your guardianship ?” Margaret said. “I beg your pardon, my lord. Stephen is under my care even if it turns out that he is as rich as Croesus and the King of England.”
“Meg,” Stephen said, and pushed the fingers of one hand through his curls, which immediately restored themselves to their usual disorder. He looked horribly embarrassed. “I am seventeen, not seven. And I am the Earl of Merton unless this is some bizarre hoax. I had better go and find out what it is all about and learn how to do the job properly. It would be lowering to meet my peers and not have any idea how to go on. You have to agree with that.”
He looked at them all in turn.
“Stephen—” Margaret began.
But he raised a hand palm out and addressed the viscount.
“The thing is,” he said, “that we are a close-knit family, as you can see for yourself. I owe a
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