Read Online Rivals of Fortune / The Impetuous Heiress by Jane Ashford - Free Book Online Page B

“what is the Townsend boy’s first name? It is ridiculous, but I cannot recall.”
    â€œJack,” answered Joanna.
    â€œOf course. It is unaccountable how one can forget the most familiar things. I could not remember.” She turned as if to go back into the house.
    â€œIs that your guest list for the party?” blurted Selina.
    Mrs. Rowntree looked up. “Oh, hello, Selina,” she said. “I thought you had gone. Yes, I am just preparing the invitations. It is to be Tuesday this week.” She turned to Joanna. “Your father is starting to organize his digging at the Abbey, so we must have the thing soon if we are to have it at all. He will be too engrossed within a very short time, I imagine, to tolerate any interruption.”
    â€œOh, it is so exciting,” exclaimed Selina. “I hope my mother will let me come.”
    Mrs. Rowntree smiled. “I do not see why she should not. It will not be a formal evening. A little dancing, perhaps, among childhood acquaintances.”
    â€œOh, Mrs. Rowntree, you will tell her so, won’t you?” said the girl. “If you ask her, she is bound to approve.”
    â€œI shall tell her what I plan,” laughed the woman, “and she will decide for herself.”
    â€œIf only I may come,” repeated Selina. “Dancing!”
    At that moment, Mr. Rowntree’s voice was heard calling to his wife, and she went back toward the house. Selina also rose. “I must go,” she said regretfully. “I promised to be home in time for tea.”
    â€œI shall walk with you part of the way,” said Joanna.
    The two girls set out accordingly, after bonnets and shawls had been found and donned. They strolled across the fields, chatting lazily. When they were about halfway to the Grants’, Joanna stopped and said good-bye. She had turned to start home again, when someone called her name and she saw Constance Williston approaching from the other side. “Hello,” called Constance. “Are you walking home? I am on my way to Mrs. Rouse’s again.”
    The two girls waited until she came up with them. Selina seemed both surprised and a little annoyed.
    â€œHow lucky,” continued Constance when she reached them. “I was just thinking what a dull walk I had ahead. Or are you going the other way?”
    â€œNo, I am going home,” said Joanna. “I was just walking part way with Selina.”
    â€œSplendid.”
    There was a pause. “Well, good-bye again, Selina,” added Joanna. “I shall see you soon.”
    â€œYou might come home to tea with me,” said Selina suddenly. “I am sure Mother would be glad to see you.”
    â€œI cannot,” replied Joanna, surprised. “I am expected at home.”
    â€œWe could send a note round.”
    Puzzled by her friend’s insistence, Joanna shook her head. “I cannot today.”
    â€œOh, very well,” snapped Selina, and she turned and flounced away.
    The other two stared after her. Constance was silent, but Joanna said, “What can be the matter with her?”
    They walked for a time in silence, then Constance ventured that it was a lovely day, and they agreed that the spell of perfect weather could not last. These commonplace remarks eased the atmosphere, and soon they were chatting easily. Joanna asked Constance about her school and was told what it was like, and in her turn, Constance inquired about some of the young people in the neighborhood. She had known them as a child, of course, but Joanna had seen them grow up through the past four years, so she had much to tell. To Joanna’s surprise, she found that Constance had a lively sense of the ridiculous.
    â€œDo you remember,” asked Constance, “when your brother Gerald and Gregory Townsend took one of the Townsends’ farm horses and tried to make it jump the Abbey wall? I never laughed so much in my life. The horse was so