Page 38 of Finding Hope
However, the little orange ball of fluff was not listening, being determined on his object. Even the water did not deter him. He leaped and pounced and splashed right into the muddy bank, shooting clumps of mud all over Hope.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” She lunged and grabbed for the cat, which only made him think she was playing a game. She chased and grabbed, and the orange cat was covered in mud when she finally caught him.
She knew she’d made a complete and utter fool of herself, and besides the bottom of her dress being soaked, the muddy cat was now pressed against her bodice. Her bonnet was hanging down her back and her hair had escaped its pins. She was afraid to turn and look, but she could hear people coming towards her.
Quickly, she turned back to the water. She could not take Freddy to the house covered in mud, so she plunged him beneath the surface, thinking to wipe him clean.
One would have thought she was trying to torture him by the way he reacted. He made a growling noise she did not know cats could make, then climbed up her arm, shoulder and neck at an alarming rate with his claws fully extended to inflict the greatest amount of damage. He must have decided her bonnet was the safest place because she could feel the hat sagging with the weight of him.
With a heavy sigh, she turned to see her sisters, along with several of the other young members of the party, laughing hysterically.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” Patience said casually. “Here, let me have the bonnet.” Her sister finished untying the ribbons and took it along with the wet cat inside.
“Good show, Miss Hope,” Freddy called as Rotham lent her a hand onto the shore and covered her up with his coat.
“Indeed,” a cold voice said as Hope looked up to see the condescending, now familiar glare of the Duchess, who was standing close by with a dismayed Dowager.
“Thank you,” she said to Rotham, then lifted her chin and walked up back the hill as though she had not just sealed her fate with utter humiliation.
Max watchedHope go back to the house with her sisters, but he did not follow. He did not want to draw more attention to the situation then it had already garnered. It would only give his mother more ammunition with regards to Hope’s imagined unsuitability.
Had that happened at any other time, without the older generation being there to witness Hope’s mishap, it would have been humorous. Max had watched the scene unfold and had known how it would end, but was powerless to stop it. Mischief seemed to follow the Whitford ladies wherever they went.
He felt a hand go through his arm and looked down to see his sister regarding him with pity.
“Come,” she said and led him back to the house. He was now without his coat anyway, and should probably rectify that.
They went into his study, and Diana poured him a drink and pressed it into his hands. “Mother will find fault with anyone,” she said, sitting in one of the chairs.
“Except her choice, you mean?” Max asked rhetorically and went to stand by the window, looking out but not seeing anything.
“I suspect she will even find fault with her. It has ever been thus.”
“Does she treat Gus and Claudia this way?”
“Gus is fortunate enough to be away at school. I was extremely jealous when you left, you know. I had nothing to shield me from her.”
Max had not considered what it must be like for his sisters. He had loved every moment of school, away from home.
“You seem happy with Courtenay.” Max turned and studied his sister.
“I was fortunate in that my choice met with her approval. However, you are to be Duke.”
“Therefore, my happiness matters not,” he said dryly.
“How is your hunt going, so to speak?”
“To this point, it has been a series of eliminations.” He shook his head, then took a drink.
“Pray tell,” Diana said eagerly.
“There is not much to tell. Lady Matilda was following me this morning in the hopes of compromising me, I have no doubt.”
“And I saw her sister’s performance with archery this afternoon,” she added in a sardonic tone.
“I do not even know why I thought Lady Alice might be a fit.” He furrowed his brow, trying to recall why she had seemed a good idea.
“I wondered if she was on your list. She is widely known to be called a devoted Wollstonecraft follower.”
