Barbara Metzger Read Online Free PDF

furnished, large enough for modest entertainments, and had its own stable mews, so Daphne could keep her own horses in Town and ride in the park mornings before the rest of society was out of bed. She found most of her pleasure there on horseback, or playing three-handed whist with Ohlman and Cousin Harriet when Mama was out with the earl, rather than at the grand balls and extravagant displays of wealth and social standing.
    Miss Whilton was still popular at the parties she did attend, but not as outgoing as before. Now she had to look at each dance partner for ulterior motives. Was Lord This only interested in her fortune? Was Lord That only interested in seduction? Cousin Harriet’s warnings stuck in her mind, that men were deceivers ever. Or was that Shakespeare? No matter, trust betrayed is a trust not easily bestowed again. She danced, she flirted, and she kept her distance from all the eligible men who would have paid her court. Daphne’s gaiety became so forced, her mother reluctantly permitted her to return to the country she preferred over town life, to Lady Whilton’s bemusement. Ruralizing was all well and good, but hadn’t they had enough of that for all those years?
    Lady Whilton had commitments that would keep her in Town, however, a dinner she was throwing for Lord Hollister’s party members, a reception for one of the foreign delegations she was helping him plan.
    So Daphne went home, along with Cousin Harriet and Ohlman, and Mama gave up the little house and moved in with the earl and his widowed sister. Why pay rent for one person when she was at Howell House most days anyway, conferring with his chef and housekeeper?
    Lady Whilton begged Daphne to accompany her—and the earl—to a round of house parties that July and August, but Daphne didn’t want to leave the boys with servants when they were home on vacation. Besides, it was time Dart learned about the land he would inherit someday—and in the not too distant future, either, if the rumors of Uncle Albert’s continued dissipation were true.
    In the fall there was the harvest and repairs to some of the tenant farms. Daphne had to stay in Hampshire to make sure Uncle Albert didn’t come and divert the monies. And there was the Sunday school class she volunteered to teach. The roads were in disrepair from the fall rains, and the boys would be home soon for the holidays, anyway. Daphne stayed in the country; Mama stayed in London, or wherever Lord Hollister went. At least someone’s courtship proceeded apace, to the point that Lord Hollister stayed with them over Christmas, and came to ask Daphne’s permission to wed her mother in the spring.
    “I know it’s not the regular thing to do, asking a young chitlike you, but your mothercouldn’t be happy if we were to cause you any discomfort.
    “There’ll be family gatherings, you know, and the wedding itself, where you’ll have to see my son. He is selling out after that last injury, finally. I begged him to, the succession, don’t you know, and I can’t lie to you and say I’m sorry he’s coming home, because he’s my son, for all his faults, and I’ve missed him.’’
    “Of course you have, and I’d never want you to—”
    “But he has his own rooms, so you won’t have to see him night and day when you come stay with us in Grosvenor Square. I mean to say, you’ll always have a home with us where you can be comfortable, even if I have to banish the nodcock to the Jamaican properties.’’
    “No, no, that won’t be necessary, my lord. We’re adults. I’m sure we can rub along well enough.” Daphne tried to swallow her panic, lest she let her own fears stand in the way of her mother’s happiness. He did keep separate rooms, and he did have a different circle of acquaintances. And she hardly went to London anymore. She’d go less, after the wedding. “We were always friends,” she said with more enthusiasm than she felt. “We should find no difficulty as relatives by