Page 30 of The Book of Lost Stories
‘But that was all a mistake. An unfortunate one, of course, but nothing you could not put right. I am sure you could win her round with a little address.’
‘Are you? She was decisive enough at eighteen, but now she is a self-opinionated spinster of three or four and twenty, that might be a challenge quite beyond my capabilities, Harry. But I don’t suppose our paths will cross, for the friend she is going to stay with is most likely to be as shabby-genteel as herself.’
‘Aha! So you were interested enough to make enquiries?’
‘I greased the coachman in the fist, once he had come down off his high ropes about the slur on his driving,’ admitted Rayven. ‘He told me she’d been living in Yorkshire with her widowed father, in a cottage on her uncle’s estate, but now she has her own way to make in the world. I expect she is seeking a post as companion or governess.’
‘Did you get her direction?’
‘No, for I am not in the market, yet, to employ either of those,’ he said drily, but all the way to London he kept thinking of a pair of large and indignant grey eyes …intelligenteyes.
The suspicions he’d once briefly entertained about the authorship of a certain novel, which at the time he had immediately dismissed as ludicrous, now crossed his mind again. She had said in the letter he had found at Knaresborough that she was writing a novel, and that he was the perfect villain.It had to be admitted that the villain ofThe Travails of Lady Malvinabore a striking physical resemblance to himself.
Couldthe dowdy and country-bred Miss Weston be the notorious Orlando Browne, whose books strait-laced mothers had forbidden their daughters to read?
Surely it was quite impossible!
*
Alys took it as a good omen that she finished off the very last page ofRavish’d by Cruel Fatejust as their coach approached the great City of London, so that she could fully enjoy the astonishingly crowded and busy series of tableaux that passed the window.
As some revenge for having her hero turn out to be the villain, she had dispatched the fair but black-hearted Lucius by the expedient of having his carriage topple into a ravine. This was very satisfying, although being fond of horses she had found herself unable to allow the team pulling it to hurtle to their doom too.
It had severely taxed her brain to find a solution, but in the end her ingenuity had, of course, been equal to it.
13
Quite Ravish’d
She gave a gasp of anguish and betrayal … her head swam dizzily, and she might have fallen, had not Simon de Lombard’s strong arms drawn her back from the brink into the darkness. His warm breath stirred her hair … he held her pressed close, and it seemed to her disordered fancy that their hearts beat to the same rhythm, as though they were one.
Ravish’d by Cruel FatebyORLANDO BROWNE
If Alys had feared that her friend might have turned into a sophisticated and worldly young matron in the three years since she had last seen her, any such idea was soon banished.
Nell might now be fashionably dressed and move with confidence in society, but underneath the veneer lay the sweet-natured and sensitive girl of old. Indeed, at three and twenty she looked very little different, except that her hair was cropped and dressed in feathery curls around her head,and her figure, though still slight, had attained some womanly curves.
There was, however, a new sadness shadowing the blue of her eyes when she thought herself unobserved, that Alys thought was not entirely due to her so-far unfulfilled longing for motherhood.
At breakfast, which was taken at such a late hour that country-bred Alys was quite famished, Nell fed Pug all kinds of unsuitable titbits, while expounding on the entertainments in store for her friend.
‘Usually I would call on my acquaintances or receive morning callers, and then perhaps walk or drive in the park, visit the shops, go to routs, balls and parties, suppers, the theatre … But the season has not yet begun, so London is very thin of company. We should still be in Cheshire ourselves had not George had business in Town.’
‘But that is all to the good, for I do not mean you to launch me into society, you know,’ Alys said, quite dazed. ‘How your friends would stare to see you in company with such a dowd, too! No, I thank you, but I will be more than occupied in seeing the sights, attending to business and arranging where Miss Grimshaw and I are to live. And I must start another novel shortly, for I cannot rest on my laurels when it is now my livelihood.’
‘But I am relying on you to give me your company when the season starts, for although I have many acquaintances, I have noparticularfriend with whom I can laugh and share secrets as we do,’ Nell said plaintively. ‘I have been so looking forward to it, and intend pointing out all the lions to you, like the wicked but handsome Lord Byron.’
‘Iwouldbe curious to see the poet, I admit.’
‘And so you shall, for when it becomes known that I have a friend staying with me you will be included in many invitations. I am afraid obtaining vouchers for Almack’s may be beyond your reach, however, for they are very particular indeed.’
Alys laughed. ‘I should think not! And once your acquaintances discover my lack of wealth and family connections, they will probably think me quite beneath their touch.’
‘If I do not think it, I don’t see why they should. Besides, you do have perfectly unexceptional relations, even if they do not acknowledge you. As to your lack of wealth, you need not mention it at all, for no one will be ill-bred enough to ask you directly.’
‘I will nothaveto mention it, for one look at me will say it all, as it did to Lord Rayven yesterday. I could see he thought me a poor, shabby-genteel thing.’
‘But he did rescue you,’ pointed out Nell, to whom she had briefly related the story of their accident the evening before, to account for their late arrival. ‘I think that is quite romantic.’
