The Country Gentleman (36 page)
Read The Country Gentleman Online
Authors: Fiona Hill
“But if you felt all that,” Anne objected, still rather stunned by this recitation, “why were you so awkward and distant with me my last weeks here? You were, you know. It hurt me.”
With a long sigh, “I know,” he said. “It was the only way I could keep myself from—from doing—the other…” He looked so uncomfortable that she laughed and said,
“You mean, the ah, er-umph! seizing thing? I see. But even so—why
did
you not make a clean breast of it? Tell me every thing, as I told you today?” she asked, in real perplexity.
Gently, “I wanted you to come to me,” he said. “If I had told you…”
He fell silent and Anne realized that, indeed, if he had told her, until very recently she would have been at best confused, at worst repelled.
“It was too soon, at Christmas, any how,” he took up presently. “I suppose I would have told you, one day—but first I hoped you would come to me.”
“As I have,” she said, reaching her hands to him and slowly submitting to be drawn again into his embrace. “What a story!” she said, after an interval. “How could I ever have imagined? I feel rather like a fly who has been strolling—whistling and thinking of nothing in particular—round and round on a spider’s web! And you, sir, are the spider!”
But this he would not endure. “You are something of a spider yourself, Miss Innocence,” he objected. “Do you suppose I am ignorant of the identity of ‘A.’?”
Aghast, she drew back from him. “You do not—”
“Oh, but I do! All the while you were here, and were writing of Lord Quaffbottle in the country, I was reading of Mr. Mutton Slowtop, the idiot sheep farmer,” he informed her. “And his giantess mother! Merciless, you are! Do not deny it. Lord Quaffbottle, like you, has gone recently to France—and now how astonished I will be if he does not find something to take him away. Oh, you are ‘A.’ right enough. In the flesh!”
“Then you knew all the while?” Her chagrin, her horrified remorse, were such that she could say no more, but only sat with her mouth agape, staring at him while she recollected how many insults she had heaped upon the cloddish Mr. Slowtop and his monstrous parent. “You never told your mother?” she demanded, as this new, awful possibility dawned on her.
Mr. Highet shook his head. “She will have enough to perplex her when she learns our marriage of convenience is to become one of great inconvenience to her,” he said. Then, observing the relief on Anne’s formerly stricken
countenance, he threw his large head back. He opened his mouth, was silent, then whipped forward with a terrific whoop and exploded into as hearty and prolonged a fit of laughter as any his wife had heard from him. But this time, instead of remaining aloof, or settling into a freezing silence, or even sitting apart with a polite smile pasted on her lips—this time Anne joined in.
When Lady Beatrice, a marriage "consult" of wide renown, firsts sets eyes on her twenty-three-year-old protegee, Lady Caro, she is despondent. Too tall, too thin, too spunky, and almost "over the hill," Caro seems doomed to spinsterhood—until Beatrice conjures up an outrageous persona for the spirited Caro sure to set her off from the hordes of more conventional, and therefore more marriageable, debutantes. Lady Beatrice's ploy—and Caro's considerable natural charm—work all too well, and soon Caro finds herself pursued not only but her reserved kinsman Lord Seabury, but by the irresistible rogue Lord Mockabee as well.
As London season reaches its glittering peak, Caro struggles to protect a friend's honor, preserve her own virtue, and win a love beyond Lady Beatrice's expectations. Sparkling with elegant wit and? extraordinary authenticity, The Autumn Rose is a delightful romp through the salons, ballrooms, gaming halls, and bedrooms of Regency London.
The lovely Lotta Chilton was fine company at dinner—as delightful a lady as one could wish to have for a walk in the garden, and sufficiently charming and clever to have secured a position as companion to the Dowager Duchess of Karr. But she was emphatically not the type of female with whom an attractive, unattached peer of the realm should fall in love, much less seek to marry. But from Timothy, Duke of Karr's first glimpse of Lotta at his mother's gala winter festivities, he had followed the girl around the splendid halls of Grasmere Castle like a lovesick puppy. Unshaken by his mother's dire warnings about Lotta's parentage and unfazed by the whispering of the other guests, the Duke vows to claim the adorable nobody—despite the protestations of propriety on the part of almost everyone, including Lotta herself.
When Daphne left her family’s country estate at Verchamp Park for a season in London, it was certainly with no expectation of romance. She soon discovers, however, that she has no difficulty in finding suitors—only in choosing among them.
All of them are quite acceptable, with the sole exception of Christian Livingston, the handsome and sensuous pianofortist employed by Lady Brede. Surely, little good could come of any attachment she might form for him. And yet, could propriety stand in Daphne’s way once her heart has been ensnared?
Miss Gillian Spencer is faced with an impossible challenge—to rescue the Viscount Sherbourne's standing. To do so, she’ll have to find wealthy husbands for his two charming and beautiful daughters. Without a farthing at the Viscount's command and his London house in ruins, Miss Spencer’s matchmaking work is certainly cut out for her. At the advanced age of twenty-seven, Gillian had dismissed the possibility of marriage for herself, of course—but who can predict where her talent for romantic intrigue on others’ behalf might lead her?
The eligible but aloof Lord Marchmont seems as determined to remain single as his sister, Lady Emilia, is to see him wed. They are surrounded by a glimmering cast of characters, from the unreliable but dashing rake Jeffery de Guere to the lovely and shy Miss Amy Lewis. And, of course, the Stanbroke girls: Lady Isabella, romantic and dreamy, yet surprisingly practical, and Lady Elizabeth, her older sister, a heroine of great sense and wit as well as beauty.
As these characters dance, court, conspire, love, and chase their way through some of the most fashionable spots of England and the continent, we join their elegant circle for the sparkling, sophisticated romp. As always, Fiona Hill brings a fresh and engaging liveliness to the world of Regency manners, making The Stanbroke Girls a triumphant delight to read.
To sweet Honoria Newcombe, the news that she was a burden to her maiden aunts came as a shock, and she resolved at once to relieve her beloved aunts of the financial strain she had unwittingly become. Honoria confers with her friend Emily Blackwood, who realizes Honoria's only hope is marriage. And so Honoria enters into a marriage of convenience with Alexander, Emily's own brother. This begins a comedy of errors so involved that nearly a year is required to unravel its tangled intricacies. Our heroine starts her life at Sweet's Folly, the Blackwood family home, and must learn to deal with the machinations of her spurned suitor, Claude Kemp, and the hilarious antics of her aunts. And, when a stroke of great good fortune sends Emily, Alexander, and Honoria to London, there is also a most extraordinary transformation to be reckoned with: shy, scholarly Alexander has become a perfect devil with the ladies!
Living the charmed life seems easy for Julia. Edgely Hall is a lovely estate, after all, but Julia wants to see beyond its gardens, to venture out and see the world for herself. She wants a life full of adventure! And so she induces her brother Fitz to accompany her on an extended visit to London, where she might discover her heart’s destiny. But romance turns out to be a complicated matter, and Julia finds herself the center of a circle of suitors, duelists, and intrigue!
Lady Laura consents to give her hand to Thaddeus Grey, a man she has known all of her life. Perhaps there is some romantic ingredient missing from their relationship, but Thad is still an attractive man and a dear friend…
As the wedding festivities were set to begin at Harkness Abbey the wedding gifts came pouring in, and the Baron Nathaniel Lowland, an old friend of Laura’s father, sent the most surprising gift of all—his son Ashley. A painter of exquisite talent, Ashley has been sent to paint Lady Laura’s portrait. It could hardly be expected that he would come to capture her heart as well.
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