Page 1 of The Gift of Patience
CHAPTER 1
If only she’d been born a man, Patience bemoaned as she sat, legs curled up in the window seat staring at the blurred park through the stream of water running down the window.
Then she would not be stuck inside dratted houses all the time with little to do but embroider or write letters as the dowagers and the aunts did most of the day between their naps. How she loathed both pastimes! Reading was not half-bad, but one could only read a book so many times before every word was memorized and the story was no longer new. In London, there had been Hatchards for as many books as a person could read in a year, but there had also been endless diversions. Promenades in Hyde Park at the fashionable hour, walks and rides other times in the park—she could at least do that here when the second great flood was not occurring, the theatre, shopping, picnics, museums…she sighed with futility. If she were a man, she could pursue any of those at her leisure.
Patience ought to be grateful. Had it not been for their guardian, she would now be a governess or companion. Now her appointed task in life was to be a lady and find a suitable husband. How that was supposed to happen while stuck in thecountry with no Society was beyond her. She twisted a long, black curl that had come loose around her finger then let it unfurl as she pondered.
She had earned a bit of a reputation for being partial to the military officers. It was to some extent well deserved, but everyone thought she only cared for a man in Regimentals for his looks. But it was much more than that. She wanted to be one of them.
When she was with soldiers, there was an endless supply of entertaining stories. Most of them had fought in the Peninsular War under Wellington.
They did not seem to mind a girl who knew about Corunna or Badajoz, or could differentiate a member of the Guards versus the Rifles.
But none of them wanted more than a brief flirtation and to dance with a pretty girl.
All of the other gentlemen? Their stories were confined to inanities and treated her like an empty-headed chit.
Patience had to find something to do or she would go mad. She stood and stretched, then began to circle the room. She’d likely paced from one end of the drawing room to the other hundreds of times since the great deluge began a fortnight ago. Would it ever end?
Surely her boredom and discontent were in large part due to Faith and Hope having married. The five sisters had been orphaned young and had always been together and reliant on each other for so long. It was odd to think that Faith was soon to be a mother, and Hope was now a duchess and a mother.
Patience was in no man’s land right in the middle between her two elder sisters, and the two younger. She never complained about it, but often felt it, nevertheless.
Faith had been a mother figure, Hope the beautiful one and destined for a great match, Grace was more studious and an avidreader, while Joy was mad for all four-legged creatures. Patience wanted adventure.
She was no more likely to find it in the country than she would be to fly to the moon.
If only they could go back to the previous Season when they had first gone to London. Not that Patience would ever wish anything dangerous on her sisters, but how grand it had been to be escorted around by all of those gentlemen on endless amusements! Her sisters had married two of them, but now the rest were gone since the danger was over, and they were back to the way things had been before. Perhaps, if she hadn’t known such adventure, she would be content now. That was a lie. She had always longed for adventure.
The worst part was, there had been opportunity, but Ashley Stuart had kept her from it. When Sir Julian had been determined to ruin her sister, Faith, he’d done everything to thwart her helping. Her own sister!
Then, when Hope had been in danger, he’d always redirected her to the safer tasks within the house when help was needed, instead of anything that might be minimally construed as dangerous. As if a mere female wasn’t capable. Infuriating man! What she wouldn’t give to prove him wrong. She could ride as well as any man and throw a knife with deadly accuracy. Not that she actually had the opportunity to throw a knife at a live target, but she could hit the centre of a still one with her eyes closed.
Maybe she would not be allowed to purchase a commission, but surely the Foreign Office had some use for lady spies. But could she convince Westwood to let her? Only he would be able to open that door for her. However, he was sure to be as bad as his brother.
Well, she was not going to find adventure sitting there. She might as well join Grace and Joy in the barn or stables.
After donning her sturdy boots and an oil skin cape to ward off the rain, she hurried to the barn, dodging mud puddles as she went. The edifice was made of the same stone as the house. A large paddock separated the barn from the stables, and several horses could be seen grazing on the lush, green grass.
When she entered through the wooden doors, she was assailed by the odours of hay and dung, and sounds from pigs, roosters, and goats. Large wooden beams crossed at the ceiling, and straw was spread across the floor. A welcome breeze entered through the other end, where the doors led out into a fenced-in yard.
Patience watched her steps carefully, though, despite the fact that one of the stable hands was sweeping the floor clean.
“Patience!” Grace called when she saw her. “Come and see the new doeling.”
Grace was sitting cross-legged in the straw, feeding milk to the tiniest goat Patience had ever seen.
“Why are you feeding her? Shouldn’t she be with her mother?”
“The mother is rejecting her, so we have to feed her for now,” Grace explained.
“That is horribly sad. How could a mother reject her baby?” Patience asked, kneeling down beside Grace to pet the kid between its ears.
“It will be a lot of work to keep her alive. We will take turns feeding her around the clock.”
“I could take a turn or two. Heaven knows I need something to do with this infernal weather.”
“I do not mind it here so much. I always did prefer the country though.”
