Read Online Never a Mistress, No Longer a Maid by Maureen Driscoll - Free Book Online

prettily.  “They can be so vexing.”
    “This one was vexing only to himself.  He needed a surgeon,
but I was told none was available.”
    “What do you mean, ‘you were told?’”  asked the Viscount. 
“You didn’t stop, did you?”
    “Yes, I did.  Did you not wonder about the spots of blood on
my clothing?”
    “We thought you’d shot some game on your ride from the
city,” said Lady Barrington.  “We believed you to be a sporting fellow.”
    “How silly you are, Mama,” said Hortense.  “If Lord Edward
had gone shooting, he surely would not have had blood on his clothes.  I
thought perhaps he’d been set upon by brigands.  What a romantic story that
would’ve been.”
    “Why did you have blood on your clothes?” asked Miss
Merriman.  “It seemed a terrible waste of a Weston jacket.”
    “I helped the man.”
    All noise within the room ceased as the family stared at
him, shocked by his admission.  Even the servants gawked at him.
    “I used my cravat as a bandage.  If I hadn’t had an extra
one in my saddle bag, I couldn’t have arrived at your door.”
    He’d looked at Miss Merriman, who’d seemed intrigued by the
thought of him without a cravat.  Or perhaps she’d been thinking of his jacket
by Weston.  It had been a most excellent coat.
    “What did you do once you bandaged the man?” asked Hortense.
    “That was what I wanted to ask you about.  A lady named Jane
arrived…”
    At once the spell around the table was broken.  At the
mention of Jane, the others exchanged looks.  He thought the youngest sister snorted.
    “She’s nothing but an eccentric bluestocking,” said Miss
Merriman with disdain.  “Thinks to run around the countryside pretending to be
a surgeon.”
    “They used to be friends,” confided Hortense, as she nodded
to a footman to refill her plate.  “Madeleine and Jane were always together
growing up, until the scandal.”
    “What scandal?” asked Ned.
    “Well,” Miss Merriman began, altogether delighted to tell. 
    She was interrupted by Lady Barrington clearing her throat
so vehemently, one would think an entire side of beef was stuck in it.  “Madeleine,
my dear.  Some things are not discussed at the table and never by ladies.”
    Miss Merriman had seemed extremely disappointed to be denied
the chance to blacken her former friend’s name.  And, suddenly, Miss Merriman,
willing or not, had been much less attractive to Ned.
    “She touches farmers,” imparted the sister.  “Everywhere.”
    “That is enough!” bellowed the Viscount.  “Hortense, you
will take yourself away from the table and go to your room.  Such terrible
manners in front of the brother of a duke!  What will Lynwood think when he
hears of this?”
    Hortense rose and left the table in a snit.  Ned made a mental
note to learn in just what capacity Jane touched farmers.
    The rest of the evening had passed interminably slowly.  The
ladies had withdrawn, leaving Ned to talk to Barrington about hunting for a
period of time that far exceeded the interest of either men.  Then, when the excellent
cigars from the Americas had been smoked and the awkward silence had stretched
long enough, they joined the ladies.  For the next two hours, the group had played
whist and listened to ladies perform on the pianoforte.   Miss Merriman had
been technically skilled but played with no passion.  As a whist partner, she’d
been shockingly unskilled. As her foot had grazed Ned’s shin for the fourth
time, he’d thought it best to claim fatigue from the journey and retire for the
night. 
    He’d given serious consideration to barricading his door.
    *                    *                    *               
    Freshly shaven and dressed for the country, Ned stole out
the back way, stopping in the kitchen only long enough to shock the staff and
take an apple.  He wondered if the Merriman family had ever stepped into the
servants’