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Authors: Carola Dunn
Tags: Regency Romance
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treat us all in Colchester on Wednesday so I shall study very hard to be sure of going!”
“I see she can twist you round her little finger,” Amaryllis told his lordship.
“Like you, she is difficult to refuse. But she did not have to tease very hard, for I wager it will be the only opportunity I shall have to see you before next Sunday,” he said ruefully.
“I am sorry, Bertram, truly I am. I wish you will not kick your heels in Halstead all week. Have you no friends nearby whom you might visit?”
“I know Ashurst Majendie of Hedingham Castle, but not well. Certainly not well enough to drive up and tell him I’ve come to stay indefinitely because I am courting the village schoolmistress. Besides, I doubt he is there at present, and I am not acquainted with his father.”
“What of the friends you stayed with near Braintree?”
“Friends of Caroline’s. I daresay I could spend a couple of days there. At least I could take a gun out for partridge.”
“An excellent idea. Much better than sitting around the inn.”
“That reminds me. At the inn here in the village, where I took Louise—what was it called?”
“The Falcon. It is on the site where the castle mews stood in mediaeval times.”
“Never mind that. There was a fellow in there—a dark, swarthy young man with an accent I would wager to be Spanish. He was asking all sorts of questions about the school.”
Amaryllis frowned. “A gentleman?”
“Of sorts. Dressed like a popinjay, jewels everywhere, and a shocking waistcoat.” His lordship looked down with complacency at his own neat blue and grey striped waistcoat with its single fob. “Wearing a sword, too. But there, I expect fashions are different in Spain as they are in most of Europe. Foppish bunch, foreigners.”
“Bertram, you do not suppose he could be connected with...with the Spanish Ambassador’s daughter? I mean a brother or something come for revenge?”
“Dash it, Amaryllis, after six years? Not but what those hidalgos have long memories and they do go in for family feuds, I believe.”
“Hidalgos?”
“The petty nobility. Complicated code of honour, great pride of family, and not much common sense. I met a few in Vienna.”
“You are most reassuring! Still, I expect he is merely interested in providing his daughter with an English education. I must go and change my dress now,” she added as the clock struck the quarter. “I shall see you on Wednesday.”
“Dash it, Amaryllis, you were used to be quite the most restful female of my acquaintance and now you will not stand still for more than five minutes before you mush dash off hither and thither.”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “I am a working woman, my dear. Now I really must run.”
He watched her until she reached the top of the stairs, then turned to leave, muttering disgustedly, “If ever I received a brotherly kiss, that was one.”
He might have been cheered had he known that, as she changed, Amaryllis was comparing him with Lord Daniel Winterborne. The comparison could only be in his favour. His excellent style, easy manners, and superior address threw Lord Daniel’s brusqueness into strong relief. Yet for quite thirty seconds Lord Daniel had been almost charming, and how that smile had changed his appearance. He could not be much older than thirty, especially as his brother George must be no more than five or six and thirty by now. Isabel was eleven, though. Had he married so young?
Or was Isabel a love-child?
That would certainly explain the lack of a respectable female in the household. On the other hand, Lord Daniel had said that his sister advised him to send Isabel to school, and surely his sister would not care a fig for the upbringing of a love-child. Isabel had told her that her father had quarrelled with his relations. Yet he was in communication with at least one and took her advice. Thoroughly intrigued by her speculations, Miss Hartwell hurried down to dinner.
After
“I see she can twist you round her little finger,” Amaryllis told his lordship.
“Like you, she is difficult to refuse. But she did not have to tease very hard, for I wager it will be the only opportunity I shall have to see you before next Sunday,” he said ruefully.
“I am sorry, Bertram, truly I am. I wish you will not kick your heels in Halstead all week. Have you no friends nearby whom you might visit?”
“I know Ashurst Majendie of Hedingham Castle, but not well. Certainly not well enough to drive up and tell him I’ve come to stay indefinitely because I am courting the village schoolmistress. Besides, I doubt he is there at present, and I am not acquainted with his father.”
“What of the friends you stayed with near Braintree?”
“Friends of Caroline’s. I daresay I could spend a couple of days there. At least I could take a gun out for partridge.”
“An excellent idea. Much better than sitting around the inn.”
“That reminds me. At the inn here in the village, where I took Louise—what was it called?”
“The Falcon. It is on the site where the castle mews stood in mediaeval times.”
“Never mind that. There was a fellow in there—a dark, swarthy young man with an accent I would wager to be Spanish. He was asking all sorts of questions about the school.”
Amaryllis frowned. “A gentleman?”
“Of sorts. Dressed like a popinjay, jewels everywhere, and a shocking waistcoat.” His lordship looked down with complacency at his own neat blue and grey striped waistcoat with its single fob. “Wearing a sword, too. But there, I expect fashions are different in Spain as they are in most of Europe. Foppish bunch, foreigners.”
“Bertram, you do not suppose he could be connected with...with the Spanish Ambassador’s daughter? I mean a brother or something come for revenge?”
“Dash it, Amaryllis, after six years? Not but what those hidalgos have long memories and they do go in for family feuds, I believe.”
“Hidalgos?”
“The petty nobility. Complicated code of honour, great pride of family, and not much common sense. I met a few in Vienna.”
“You are most reassuring! Still, I expect he is merely interested in providing his daughter with an English education. I must go and change my dress now,” she added as the clock struck the quarter. “I shall see you on Wednesday.”
“Dash it, Amaryllis, you were used to be quite the most restful female of my acquaintance and now you will not stand still for more than five minutes before you mush dash off hither and thither.”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “I am a working woman, my dear. Now I really must run.”
He watched her until she reached the top of the stairs, then turned to leave, muttering disgustedly, “If ever I received a brotherly kiss, that was one.”
He might have been cheered had he known that, as she changed, Amaryllis was comparing him with Lord Daniel Winterborne. The comparison could only be in his favour. His excellent style, easy manners, and superior address threw Lord Daniel’s brusqueness into strong relief. Yet for quite thirty seconds Lord Daniel had been almost charming, and how that smile had changed his appearance. He could not be much older than thirty, especially as his brother George must be no more than five or six and thirty by now. Isabel was eleven, though. Had he married so young?
Or was Isabel a love-child?
That would certainly explain the lack of a respectable female in the household. On the other hand, Lord Daniel had said that his sister advised him to send Isabel to school, and surely his sister would not care a fig for the upbringing of a love-child. Isabel had told her that her father had quarrelled with his relations. Yet he was in communication with at least one and took her advice. Thoroughly intrigued by her speculations, Miss Hartwell hurried down to dinner.
After
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