An Affair of the Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

larger than the hand within.
    “Oh, Ellie. There you are,”Rex said good-naturedly. “Was asking for you. They thought you was with your papa.”
    “No, I was spraying the rose bushes, but I am finished that. Come around here. I don’t want Mama to see me talking to you in all my dirt, or she’ll scold.”
    A trim little figure, tall and straight, led the way to an area at the side of the house that was sheltered by a cantilevered roof, and on a work table beneath it various pots, humus, bulbs, trowels, and plants were spread out. The destination reached, Ellie turned around and faced her followers.
    They looked, and Claymore could not believe this was a daughter of the house, for her soiled apron, bedraggled hat, wispy and disheveled hair proclaimed a very underling of the domestic staff.
    “Clay, this is Ellie,”Rex explained, and considered that sufficient introduction.
    “Your servant, ma’am,” Claymore said, bowing stiffly.
    Ellie performed half a curtsy, then changed her mind and proffered her gloved hand. Looking at it, she swished it back behind her back with a grimace. She had been in the potting shed when the guests arrived, and so did not know of their presence in time to get cleaned up. Alice, a kitchen maid who happened by, mentioned that Mr. Homberly was here, with a lord from Lunnon.
    Ellie immediately knew it to be her moonlight visitor, and stood by to hear their departure. She was eager to see the newcomer in the clear light of day to determine if he was really as grand as she had thought last night. He was. He looked a positive Apollo beside poor stubby little Rex. His dark green riding jacket fit his shoulders without a wrinkle, and his fawn trousers hadn’t a spot on them. His top boots, too, were unmarred.
    As the Apollo’s brown eyes raked her own awful garments, she realized too late her mistake in appearing before him in such an unbecoming guise. She slipped off her gloves, and tucked a few stray strands of hair up under her sun hat. She then made the error of wiping the perspiration from her brow, and a long streak of mud was trailed across her forehead. Now that they were here, she was uncertain what she had meant to say.
    “You look the very devil, Ellie,”Rex said kindly. “I don’t believe even Missie goes about in such rags as you’re wearing. ‘Pon my word, I don’t know what your mama’s thinking of.”
    “I have been working—potting these bulbs Papa has received from America,” she explained, while Claymore continued to look. There were some distinguishable traces of the Wanderley beauty there under the mud, he thought. The eyes were fine—like Lady Siderow’s. Maybe even bigger than Wanda’s, though not so cunningly used, with batting lashes and coy glances. A direct, forward gaze. They were gray eyes; Wanda’s were blue.
    “You ought to let one of the gardeners do it,” Rex continued.
    “We only have one, and he only comes three days a week,” Ellie said, thus revealing her mama’s proud lie that they had two.
    “Well, what did you call us for?” Rex demanded impatiently.
    “I was just wondering about last night.”
    “What about it?”
    “You were here, perhaps you don’t recall, for I think you were both tipsy,” she said stiffly, quite overcome with embarrassment as Claymore’s brown eyes continued to take in details of her awful toilette.
    “I pray you will accept our apologies, ma’am,” Claymore said. “I fear we may have been a trifle tipsy.”
    “Ape drunk,” she shot back, goaded on by embarrassment to anger. “Climbing up a ladder, and saying all manner of foolish things.”
    “Shut up, Ellie,” Rex said bluntly, stealing a quick look around, lest they were being overheard.
    “I hope you will be kind enough to disregard any foolish utterances I may have made,” Clay broke in. Even if the girl was a hoyden, one did not tell a lady to shut up.
    “Naturally I paid no heed. Did you hurt yourself, my lord? I feared you may have done