Read Online The Shocking Secret of a Guest at the Wedding (Millworth Manor) by Victoria Alexander - Free Book Online
Authors: Victoria Alexander
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behind her. “Might I have a word, my lady.”
The voice yanked her back to the here and now and she turned. “Yes?”
Clement, Millworth’s butler, inclined his head toward her in a discreet manner and lowered his voice for her ears alone. “I do hate to interrupt, but you’re needed in the kitchen.”
“I’ll be right there.” She nodded at the butler, then turned back to her stranger. “Forgive me, but I do have duties to attend to.”
“Understandable.” He took her hand and drew it to his lips. “Thank you for coming to the rescue of a poor flounder.” He flashed a quick grin. “And for a most enjoyable adventure.”
She smiled, nodded, and hurried off, ignoring the heat that flushed her face and a distinct sense of disappointment. Absurd, of course. It was no more than a single dance with an unidentified gentleman. There was no need for her to think even for an instant that it was more than it was. Besides, she had other concerns at the moment.
Still, once she had resolved the problem—a simple matter of locating misplaced cases of champagne—and returned to the ballroom she couldn’t help casually looking for her handsome American. He seemed to have vanished, exactly what one would expect from a mysterious stranger. Blast it all, she never did get the man’s name and now he was nowhere to be found. How could she inquire about him if she didn’t have his name? Although, it was probably for the best. The last thing she wanted, now or ever, was another man in her life with secrets.
Her gaze wandered over the crowd of celebrants and the thought occurred to her, as it always did when she organized a wedding, that this was very much the sort of wedding she had always planned on for herself. The wedding she expected to have when she married the man she was expected to marry. A man with a lofty title and a sizable fortune. It was what the daughter of the Earl of Sallwick was born and bred for.
Perhaps it was something the American had said or maybe it was simply inevitable, but for the first time it struck her that what she had expected of her life was not how it was ever going to be. Wasn’t it time to stop thinking of what she and her mother did to support themselves as a temporary measure? As nothing more than a passing solution and that one day their lives would be back on the course they were always expected to take.
The American was right. She was a woman of business and bloody well good at it too. Maybe it was time to accept who and what she was. To accept that she would never have the kind of wedding she had expected to have. Or that she would never marry the kind of man she had expected to marry. In fact, now that she thought about it, marriage was no longer what she wanted at all.
As a young girl she had longed for independence. And why not? The new century was fast approaching and with it progress and new ideas. Why, weren’t women already working for suffrage? And while being an independent woman of business was not something she would proclaim to society—it would ruin them after all—it was time, past time, really, to embrace it within herself and stop looking back at what her life was supposed to be. But rather look at what it was. And what it could be.
Without thinking she raised her chin as if facing the future head-on. No, Lady Theodosia Winslow was not born and bred to be an independent woman of business but it was exactly what she was.
Teddy smiled at the thought. And that, my dear mysterious American, might well be the grandest adventure of all.
Chapter Four
Colonel Basil Channing considered himself a man of action and courage. Why, among his many adventures, hadn’t he once faced a charging rhinoceros on the African plains? Hadn’t he escaped the clutches of bloodthirsty natives in the South Seas? Hadn’t he been presented at court to Her Majesty? Still, none of those, with the possible exception of his introduction to the queen, had proved as daunting as the task
The voice yanked her back to the here and now and she turned. “Yes?”
Clement, Millworth’s butler, inclined his head toward her in a discreet manner and lowered his voice for her ears alone. “I do hate to interrupt, but you’re needed in the kitchen.”
“I’ll be right there.” She nodded at the butler, then turned back to her stranger. “Forgive me, but I do have duties to attend to.”
“Understandable.” He took her hand and drew it to his lips. “Thank you for coming to the rescue of a poor flounder.” He flashed a quick grin. “And for a most enjoyable adventure.”
She smiled, nodded, and hurried off, ignoring the heat that flushed her face and a distinct sense of disappointment. Absurd, of course. It was no more than a single dance with an unidentified gentleman. There was no need for her to think even for an instant that it was more than it was. Besides, she had other concerns at the moment.
Still, once she had resolved the problem—a simple matter of locating misplaced cases of champagne—and returned to the ballroom she couldn’t help casually looking for her handsome American. He seemed to have vanished, exactly what one would expect from a mysterious stranger. Blast it all, she never did get the man’s name and now he was nowhere to be found. How could she inquire about him if she didn’t have his name? Although, it was probably for the best. The last thing she wanted, now or ever, was another man in her life with secrets.
Her gaze wandered over the crowd of celebrants and the thought occurred to her, as it always did when she organized a wedding, that this was very much the sort of wedding she had always planned on for herself. The wedding she expected to have when she married the man she was expected to marry. A man with a lofty title and a sizable fortune. It was what the daughter of the Earl of Sallwick was born and bred for.
Perhaps it was something the American had said or maybe it was simply inevitable, but for the first time it struck her that what she had expected of her life was not how it was ever going to be. Wasn’t it time to stop thinking of what she and her mother did to support themselves as a temporary measure? As nothing more than a passing solution and that one day their lives would be back on the course they were always expected to take.
The American was right. She was a woman of business and bloody well good at it too. Maybe it was time to accept who and what she was. To accept that she would never have the kind of wedding she had expected to have. Or that she would never marry the kind of man she had expected to marry. In fact, now that she thought about it, marriage was no longer what she wanted at all.
As a young girl she had longed for independence. And why not? The new century was fast approaching and with it progress and new ideas. Why, weren’t women already working for suffrage? And while being an independent woman of business was not something she would proclaim to society—it would ruin them after all—it was time, past time, really, to embrace it within herself and stop looking back at what her life was supposed to be. But rather look at what it was. And what it could be.
Without thinking she raised her chin as if facing the future head-on. No, Lady Theodosia Winslow was not born and bred to be an independent woman of business but it was exactly what she was.
Teddy smiled at the thought. And that, my dear mysterious American, might well be the grandest adventure of all.
Chapter Four
Colonel Basil Channing considered himself a man of action and courage. Why, among his many adventures, hadn’t he once faced a charging rhinoceros on the African plains? Hadn’t he escaped the clutches of bloodthirsty natives in the South Seas? Hadn’t he been presented at court to Her Majesty? Still, none of those, with the possible exception of his introduction to the queen, had proved as daunting as the task
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