Page 3 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke
Three days later Thea was almost hoarse from chattering and Maunday had the glazed look of a woman whose brain had been lightly scrambled.They had stopped for the first night at Eaton Socon at the White Horse and the second at North Witham, about one hundred miles from home and ten miles south of Grantham.
The coachman, she knew, had orders to drive very steadily and to change horses every ten miles or so.He would certainly be prepared to stop at either of the excellent inns at Grantham—either the Angel, reputed to be the eldest inn in England, as Thea told the maid at length, or the very modern George.
They were about a mile from the town when Thea let her voice trail away.She doubled over, gave a deep groan and clutched at her stomach.
‘My lady!What is it?What’s wrong?’
‘Handkerchief!’
Maunday scrabbled for one and pressed it into her hand.
‘Oh, I should never have eaten that ham at breakfast.I thought it tasted strange but I assumed it was a local cure…Oh!’
‘Hold on, my lady,’ the abigail said urgently.‘We are almost in the town and the inns are very good, so I’m told.John said he’d stop at one to change horses.They’ll have a room for you and you can lie down.Just hold on.Wherever did I put the lavender water?’
* * *
Hal stretched out long legs and leaned back in the deep armchair.‘You have no idea, Godmama, how good it feels simply to stop travelling.’
‘I have, my boy.’The Dowager Lady Holme put down her teacup and smiled fondly at him.‘My late husband never seemed to stop in one place for more than seven nights together and I was dutiful enough to travel with him.Dear Reginald has been gone these past six years and now I move at my own pace.But you are almost at the end of your journey, are you not?’
He nodded, ‘I had planned to go into Norfolk, but it is not urgent.I am inclined to continue on down to London now.I’m my own master, after all.’
‘It will be quiet, the Season has not yet started,’ she reminded him.‘But I suppose you are hardly planning to join the social whirl.’
‘True.There are some tiresome business affairs,’ he said with a shrug.‘Then visits to my tailors, a look in at—’
From the hall the sound of the front door knocker penetrated upstairs to the comfortable seclusion of Lady Holme’s sitting room.
‘Bother,’ she said vaguely.‘But I told Fenwick I was not at home, so we will not be disturbed.’
Barely a half minute later the door opened.
‘A caller, my lady.I believe you will wish to speak withher.’Fenwick, an old family retainer, knew when to treat orders as mere suggestions.‘I have shown the young lady to the drawing room.’
‘Do not disturb yourself, dear boy.’His godmother waved him back into his chair as he rose when she did.‘I will not be long.Some problem with the tenants, no doubt.’
Hal settled himself more comfortably, considered another cup of tea, realised it must be cold by now, dismissed the idea of finding a newspaper or a book on the grounds that his godmother would return very soon and settled on simply relaxing.
It dawned on him, after perhaps thirty minutes, that whatever the problem was, it did not appear to be yielding to Godmama’s usual decisive approach.Should he go and see if it was something he could help her with?
He stood up, flicked his coat tails into order, pulled down his waistcoat and turned to the door as it opened and his godmother swept in.
Her lips moved but no sound emerged.He realised she was mouthing the wordshelp meas she looked fixedly at him.
Help her with what?All seemed tranquil outside the room, his godmother looked perfectly well—except for an expression of what he could only describe as concentrated urgency.
He stared at her wondering if she had received a blow to the head or was suffering a seizure.‘Yes, of course I will but—’
‘And be tactful,’ she whispered before turning to speak to someone behind her.‘Ah, there you are, my dear.You will be positively dying for a cup of tea, I have no doubt.It will be here in a moment, but first I must introduce you.Thea, my dear, allow me to present Mr Hal Forrest, oneof my many godchildren.Hal, Lady Thea Campion, my goddaughter.’
Somehow he managed a murmur of greeting and a smile.The tall young woman in front of him was not regarding him as though he had lost his wits, so perhaps he had succeeded.
‘Lady Thea, an honour.’He bowed, just as an untitled gentleman should when introduced to a member of the aristocracy.
To a very comely member of the aristocracy.
‘Mr Forrest, how do you do?I am sure that if we are both Lady Holme’s godchildren we must be related in some way,’ Lady Thea said with a warm smile as she sank into an armchair and twitched her skirts into order.‘God-cousins, perhaps, if such a thing exists.I am so sorry to have broken into your quiet afternoon, but I have explained to Godmama that it is an emergency.I am running away, you see.’
