Page 24 of Snowy and the Seven Doves
The others were approaching her ladyship’s house as he walked within sight of it. The Deerhaven’s elegant landau carried the marchioness, Mrs. Ashby and Lady Stancroft. Their husbands rode together behind the carriage, leading a spare horse.
Lady Charmain came down the steps from her house, and all of a sudden, she was all he could see. He must have hurried his steps, for there he was, handing her up into the landau before Deerhaven’s groom could perform that office. He managed to recover his senses sufficiently to greet the rest of the company as he mounted the horse they’d brought for him and followed the carriage with the rest of the gentlemen.
The Hamners had a property in the country, just thirty minutes from town. They made good time until close to the Hamner estate, when they found themselves caught in a snarl. A dray had collided with another wagon carrying produce. The road was covered with cabbages and the drivers were attempting to untangle their horses. If it had been up to Snowy, they would have walked from that point, and left the grooms to bring the vehicle and the horses.
He supposed the ladies did not wish to put their gowns at risk on the road verge. Or perhaps people of their kind simply took it for granted that fifteen minutes sitting in a slow-moving carriage was better than a ten-minute walk.
He made no comment, but simply followed along until it was their turn to hand their horses over to the grooms brought for the purpose and assist the ladies from the vehicle.
He did his best to suppress his contemptuous amusement, but must have let some of it leak into his expression, for the Marquess of Deerhaven said, out of the corner of his mouth, “Ridiculous, isn’t it? We could have walked faster.”
His marchioness overheard him, and her eyes twinkled with humor as she said, “We obey Society’s expectations in the little things so we can ignore them in the matters that are important.”
A good precept. If Snowy was going to be a viscount, it was one worth remembering.
*
Margaret sat withher friends in the shade, sipping fruit juice and watching Peter, Ash, Deerhaven, and Snowy on the large artificial lake with half a dozen other men, rowing two to a boat in a series of races. The ladies had been out on the water, but when the men challenged one another to a race, they had asked to be set ashore on the island, where refreshments were set out in the temple-like folly.
“You like him, don’t you?” Regina asked Margaret.
“Which him?” Margaret asked, though she knew perfectly well that Regina was referring to Snowy.
“I do,” Arial said. “Peter does, too. He is not what we expected when you told us about allowing him to escort you, Margaret.”
Margaret dropped the pretense to pursue this more interesting topic.
“What did you think he would be like?”
Arial thought about it. “A lot rougher. Less concerned about your safety and your reputation.”
“After all,” Cordelia pointed out, “you did meet him in a slum alley not far from the brothel where he works. It was not a recommendation of good character.”
Regina agreed. “We were concerned but are reassured now we have met him.”
“He has been raised as a gentleman,” Margaret said. “In my experience, he is more of a gentleman than many you meet in Society.”
The other ladies nodded. “Lord Snowden for one,” Regina agreed and tilted her head toward the man himself, watching them from the far shore. His son and young Deffew, his ward, were out racing on the lake, but Snowden did not turn his stare away from the four ladies.
“The rumors say Snowden is not the viscount, that there is a lost heir. It is Snowy, isn’t it? That’s what he was telling us at the Park. Arial commented. “Did he start the rumors, Margaret?”
“said he has not told me,” Margaret answered, suppressing the slight hurt that she had been used in his plan but not told what it was. “But consider the way these rumors have appeared just when he chooses to go into Society—it is too unlikely a coincidence. I think he must be behind them. Lord Snowden must be rattled, given he sent his son to repeat what he called to tell me himself: Snowy is a charlatan, a fraud, and that I must cease seeing him immediately.”
Regina’s reaction was the same as Margaret’s. “The cheek!”
“Interesting, though,” Cordelia mused. “Have you told Snowy?”
A face on the other shore had caught Margaret’s eye. It could not be… At this distance, it was impossible to be sure, but somehow, she was. She squinted in a subtle attempt to block the sun’s reflection on the waters of the lake.
“Margaret?” Arial asked.
“Hmmm?” She turned her head to peer at them. What had they been talking about? “No, I haven’t had the opportunity, yet.”
Her friends were looking at her with concern. “You have gone pale, darling,” Arial said. “Is something the matter?”
“Nothing,” she assured them. “I thought I saw someone I knew long ago, but I am sure I must be wrong. He was some distance away, and I could not see his face clearly. Just the hair color and the uniform.”
“Not the odious officer!” Arial exclaimed.
