Read Online One Touch of Magic by Amanda Mccabe - Free Book Online Page A

old for having done all the things he did on the Peninsula.”
    “How do you know what he did on the Peninsula?” Sarah set aside her book. This conversation was proving to be more interesting than the history of Jorvik.
    “I was talking to one of the workers, a Mr. Smith, while you showed Lord Ransome the objects in the stable. Mr. Smith’s family has lived on Ransome land for simply ages, and he knows all the on dits. Lord Ransome was a major in the Forty-first Foot, and fought very bravely at all sorts of battles. He saved many, many lives, and Wellington himself commended him, and his regiment even gave him a medal.” Mary Ann’s voice was breathless as she recited this litany of gallantry.
    Sarah had to admit that even she was impressed. Lord Ransome certainly looked the part of the brave officer, but, as Sarah well knew, appearances could often be deceiving. There was many a man who strutted about in his regimentals, bragging to the ladies about exploits they had never performed. It seemed Lord Ransome was no such preening peacock.
    “It sounds as if Lord Ransome was very brave,” she said.
    “Indeed.” Mary Ann’s wide, dark gaze turned shrewd as she looked at Sarah. “He seemed to like you a great deal. He listened very intently to everything you said about the Vikings.”
    Sarah felt her cheeks grow uncomfortably warm, and she glanced back down at her book. “Of course, he listened, Mary Ann. This is his land we are working on. He is bound to be interested in what happens on it.”
    Mary Ann shook her head. “No, it is not just that. He was admiring you, not the work.”
    “Mary Ann! Really,” Sarah cried. It had been a long time since she was teased about a gentleman by her girl-friends; so long ago, she could not even remember it. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it now, especially from her baby sister. It made her want to squirm.
    Ancient Viking relics she was quite comfortable with. Men, especially handsome, young ones, she was not so sure about.
    “What?” Mary Ann said innocently. “I merely observed that Lord Ransome seems to admire you. And why should he not? You are very lovely.”
    “And I am also newly widowed.”
    “Hardly new! Sir John has been gone for over a year. It is perfectly respectable for Lord Ransome to admire you, and for—for . . .”
    Sarah was quite curious against her will. What was Mary Ann going to say? “For what?”
    Mary Ann shrugged. “For whatever may happen to happen.”
    “I am not thinking of marrying again, as I have told you and Phoebe many times. I am far too busy. If I did want to look about for another husband, I would do so among my friends, among other scholars.” She gave her sister a rueful smile. “A man like Lord Ransome would not find a woman like me very interesting for very long.”
    “Fustian!” Mary Ann cried. “How could he not?”
    “Well, for one thing, his station is far above mine. The Bellweathers and the Iversons are respectable, but hardly at the level of a marquis. And that is only the beginning of the reasons Lord Ransome and I would not suit. But we don’t have time to discuss this now! Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton are coming to supper, and we have to change our gowns.”
    Mary Ann sighed, and shuffled her sketches back into their portfolio. “Very well. May we discuss it later, then?”
    “No! Later we will have too much work to do to giggle over men.”
    “Oh, Sarah! You are no fun at all.”

    “Imagine it, Neville! Only here one day, and we are invited to a marquis’s supper party!” Emmeline Hamilton peered into her dressing-table mirror, and dusted rice powder over her cheeks. Then she reached for her jewel case and dug inside it for a pair of pearl earrings. “It is absolutely splendid.”
    Neville Hamilton, who had been staring out the window of his wife’s inn bedchamber down to the street below, looked over his shoulder at Emmeline, watching her uncertainly. She appeared happier than he had seen her since