Read Online The House at Bell Orchard by Sylvia Thorpe - Free Book Online Page A

I do want him to be happy. And that he could never be if Selina were here, poking that long nose of hers into everything—”
    “Dorothy!”
    “But it is long, Mama! You know it is, and she is for ever prying into other people’s concerns and trying to make them behave as she thinks they should, and saying spiteful things about them in that horrid, self-righteous way she has. Oh, it would be too dreadful if Piers married her!”
    “We do not know yet that he has any such intention.”
    “Why else would he go so often to call upon General Grey?” Dorothy demanded bitterly. “Mama, we must prevent it, and if becoming acquainted with Miss Tarrant is the way to do so, then I, for one, will spare no pains to be kind to her. To be sure, I cannot imagine our sober, practical Piers doing anything as adventurous as falling in love at first sight, but he does seem excessively concerned about her.”
    “Dorothy, you must endeavour to conduct yourself with more propriety,” Lady Wychwood protested. “You have no business to be talking in this fashion. Moreover, when you meet Miss Tarrant, you may like her no better than you like Selina Grey.”
    “No one could be worse than Selina,” retorted her irrepressible daughter. “I am sure I shall like her very well, and so will you. Why, the accident to Mrs. Fenshawe’s coach was the greatest good fortune imaginable! Just wait and see if I am not right!”

 
    5
    Wychwood Chase
    Lady Wychwood was as good as her word, and the next day saw her carriage making its way down the long, winding drive to Bell Orchard. Dorothy, seated beside her mother, had already convinced herself that her brother’s concern for the unknown Miss Tarrant betokened an interest far deeper than their brief, casual meeting justified, and was dwelling gleefully on the disappointment which this would cause the detested Selina Grey. Dorothy had a shrewd suspicion that it was Selina who had carried tales to Piers of his sister’s liking for the company of Harry Fenshawe, and she would not readily forgive this deliberate sowing of discord between her and Piers. The incident had provided a foretaste of what might be expected if Selina became Piers wife, and Dorothy felt that she would go to any lengths to prevent such a thing.
    Lavinia Fenshawe was by no means pleased when her butler announced Lady Wychwood and her daughter, but succeeded in hiding her feelings. She welcomed the visitors graciously, made Miss Tarrant known to them, and assured her ladyship that she had recovered completely from the shock of the accident.
    “Though it was my poor Charmian who suffered most,” she added lightly, “for I was flung quite on top of her, and the poor child struck her head a severe blow. But Sir Piers came most gallantly to the rescue, and made all right in a trice, did he not, my love?”
    Charmian nodded, and looked with a shy smile at Lady Wychwood. “He was very kind,” she agreed. “I am exceedingly grateful to him.”
    Her ladyship regarded her kindly, for her first impression of Charmian Tarrant was a favourable one. “I am happy to think that my son was at hand to offer his assistance,” she replied. “Is this your first visit to Sussex, Miss Tarrant?”
    Charmian’s eyes clouded. “Yes, it is,” she said in a low voice. “I lived in Richmond until—until my father died.”
    Lady Wychwood uttered a civil expression of sympathy and tactfully turned the conversation to other topics, and Mrs. Fenshawe responded eagerly. She seemed unwilling for them to speak of personal matters, and though this might have been prompted by a desire to spare Miss Tarrant’s feelings, Dorothy did not feel that this was the case.
    She remembered Piers saying the previous day that he felt the circumstances of Miss Tarrant’s presence at Bell Orchard were not altogether ordinary, and, for Dorothy, this was more than enough. She had a vivid imagination and a tendency to let it get the better of her, so that she was for