Page 6 of A Wild English Rose
“It would be wonderful to have you come to Rosemount Abbey sometime and see the stables and the bloodline books,” he said.
He silently chided himself. Of course, she wouldn’t be coming to visit him at the Rosemount estate; she was about to marry a marquis. Her life was set in stone.
Cecily smiled. “I would love nothing better, but I suspect my diary may be full for the next few years. Will you be here again tomorrow?”
He thought for a moment, caught between fantasy and reality. His fantasy would see him spend every morning with her in the park, until they slowly but inexorably fell in love with one another. They would be married and spend the rest of their lives discussing horses over the breakfast table. Their children would of course learn to ride as soon as they could walk.
He blinked away the impossible thought.
The reality was that she would go home today, and sometime soon be married off to the Marquis of Horsham. This morning would be a pleasant memory for the both of them, nothing more.
“Unfortunately, not. I am setting out for home later today. I have some personal shopping to do this morning on Oxford Street, then I am back to Grosvenor Square before heading off.”
They stood in silence for a moment, the only sound the crunch of the carrot in the horse’s mouth.
“I wish I had met you sooner, Thomas Rosemount. Who knows what might have been?” she replied.
Regret stung his heart, while temptation whispered that he should sweep her up into his arms and steal her away on his horse. Fate however, had dealt him a hand that he couldn’t play. He had an injured horse, and Cecily had already accepted her fate.
They parted at Hyde Park corner, with Cecily headed to her nearby home and Thomas walking the injured horse back to the stables. He made it a mere dozen yards before he yielded to temptation and looked back.
When his eyes found her, he felt a flutter in his heart. She was still standing on the corner, her gaze fixed on him.
Chapter Six
“And where exactly have you been at this hour?”
Cecily had barely made it inside the front door before her mother seized her by the arm and dragged her into a nearby sitting room. She closed the door behind them.
“This is not the sort of behavior that will sit well with Lord Horsham. You cannot go wandering the streets of London in the early hours unaccompanied,” said her mother.
Anger stirred inside Cecily. “I went riding in Hyde Park with a gentleman. Viscount Rosemount’s son, Thomas. He let me ride his horse and we talked. That is all,” she said.
The look which crossed her mother’s face said more than a hundred conversations could. “Don’t tell me you would consider Thomas Rosemount as a potential husband, Cecily that man is so provincial. You must not see Lord Rosemount again; your future husband would not take kindly to thinking that you are allowing another man to paw you in the middle of Hyde Park,” replied her mother.
“There was nothing untoward in our meeting, Lord Rosemount was the perfect gentleman. And to be honest, I could not care less what Lord Horsham thinks,” she snapped.
Lady Norris huffed. “Oh, Cecily, don’t be so naïve. All men are only after the one thing when it comes to women.”
The happy mood from her morning spent with Thomas began to fade from Cecily’s mind. In its place, a darker humor formed. “Lord Horsham only cares that I will bear him an heir. Though lord knows why he has waited so long to take a wife. He could have had several adult children by now if he had married as a younger man.”
“Ours is not to question the minds of men. He likely had a perfectly good reason,” replied her mother.
Cecily bit down on her bottom lip. She could think of several reasons why a man would not take a wife until he felt it absolutely necessary, none of which were topics for polite conversation.
“You will have to change your attitude if you are to make a success of your marriage. You have your reputation to think of. The Patronesses of Almack’s have sent word that they will not have you back until you are married due to your lurid dancing. And speaking of unladylike behavior, your father has decreed that you are not to partake of any more alcohol while you live under his roof, rumors have reached his ears,” said Lady Norris.
Her mother’s comment was the final tipping point. Who were they to talk about vile gossip?
She stepped in close to her mother and stared her down. “Funny thing, rumors, they never completely die. Some of the things I have heard over the years about our family have been quite interesting. Especially the one about who my real father is, or hadn’t you heard that one?”
Lady Norris’s already pale complexion turned a whiter shade.
Cecily had held onto that secret for so many years that she was genuinely surprised at her mother’s reaction. The knowledge that she was a by-blow had long ago lost all powerover her. Still, it was good to finally use that piece of spite and watch her mother blanch.
“You didn’t think I would eventually find out? That I would spend my whole life thinking that it was normal for my parents not to give a damn about me?” She had been sent away to live at Chatsworth House with several other unwanted children of theton.Children who all had a similar story.
Her father had been prepared to give his family name to the child of his wife’s indiscretion, but he would not stand to be reminded of it on a daily basis by having Cecily grow up under his roof. She had been shunted from stately home to stately home over the years, finally ending up in exile in Ireland.
