A Madness in Spring Read Online Free PDF Page A

at something Belinda had said. And she was laughing too.
    And something strange lanced through him. Not unlike when his horse took a jump Adam was not prepared for.
    Maybe he should stay a little while longer. Just until he was sure that the good weather was going to hold. To make his journey easier, of course.
    “Nothing would please me more, Miss Gage.”

Chapter Four
----
     
    I t was over the course of the next few days that Adam decided that Miss Georgette Gage was completely mad.
    Oh, not really. In most things, she showed strong common sense and good humor – for instance, when she was dealing with her brother’s fears about her health. (As someone who had an older brother himself, he admired her restraint.) And she was generally a very happy, vivacious new member of their circle.
    So it was just too bad that she had somehow abandoned all sense and thought that her brother Bertram was interested in Belinda Leonard.
    This wasn’t a conclusion he came to lightly. No, he had spent the past few days observing the two of them very closely. And he’d had ample opportunity to do so – he made sure of it.
    Luckily for Adam he did not have to go far for observation. Not only did Francesca and Belinda have the Hemshawe Fair
and
a Harvest Festival to plan, but now they had a party to help Miss Gage put together. Thus the three of them had become completely inseparable. As Belinda walked there daily for some reason (Sturridge Manor and Croftburr were not adjoining – one had to walk a bit of the main road of Hemshawe, but they were within a few easy miles of each other) and Francesca insisted on having her housekeeper help with the party’s organizational efforts, naturally everyone ended up at Sturridge Manor.
    Mrs. Clotworthy had taken a spring chill, so Bertram Gage found it necessary to escort his sister on her daily outings (really, didn’t the man have better things to do?). As such, Bertram Gage and Belinda Leonard were often in the same room together.
    And to Adam’s eye, they showed absolutely no partiality for each other.
    Because when Bertram crossed the room to bend over Belinda’s hand, that was common courtesy, wasn’t it? He bent over Francesca’s as well… although, as it was Francesca’s house, shouldn’t he bend over hers first?
    And when Miss Gage complained she was too warm and unwrapped the shawl Belinda had leant her, she gave it to Bertram to give back to Belinda. The fact that he had laid it across her shoulders was nothing more than good manners.
    Perhaps Belinda smiled at Bertram when he did so, but then she went on talking about the decorations or some such thing for Miss Gage’s party like nothing had happened.
    But that she had smiled at all…
    However, Adam had to admit, contrary to previous opinion, Belinda
did
smile regularly. Just not at him, hence he wasn’t used to seeing it. She smiled at Francesca, at Miss Gage, at John, and at the maid who brought in their tea.
    She smiled at Bertram.
    But never at Adam.
    So it was with some surprise that he realized that not only did Belinda smile, but that she had a rather nice smile. Not just that she had straight teeth and the requisite number of them, but the whole act did something interesting to her face. What he had always assumed was the harsh stare of her judgment transformed into the light of someone who had a joke inside their head, constantly amusing them.
    But not only did Belinda smile, she
laughed
when listening to Bertram tell a story of how he once lost his horse in his own mews.
    “When I turn around, there he was, following me at three paces the entire length of the mews.”
    It was not the bitter cackle he’d expected. Instead, it was a light, happy sound that filled up the room, and prompted others to join in.
    All except Adam, that is. How come she never laughed like that when he told a joke? He was, in his own estimation, quite funny. And Bertram losing his horse in the narrow alley behind his house showed him to be