Heir to Rowanlea Read Online Free PDF Page A

normally she was the most interested of all his family in his farm, and even understood how some of his machines worked, and why they were better than previous models, but tonight she showed scant interest. Persevering, he changed the subject and asked whether she had enjoyed the novel he had found in the green saloon.
    “It was silly,” she replied shortly, casting a quick glance across the table at him. “I would marry a man I loved whether or not he had a great fortune or a title. Females who are too ambitious and set store by such nonsense deserve to be left on the shelf!”
    Harry shot her a suspicious glance, but she was contemplating, with apparently intense interest, the ratafia pudding before her and did not look at him again. He made some noncommittal reply and turned to answer a query from his father.
    Lady Weare studied them unobtrusively, wondering what was the cause of this outbreak. She had a very shrewd suspicion of how matters stood between Harry and Elizabeth, but she had not thought Charlotte was aware of it. What could have happened? Had either Harry or Elizabeth confided in her? It seemed unlikely, but with Harry’s sudden eagerness to resolve the admittedly unsatisfactory situation where he did not know whether his father were Viscount Rowanlea, and himself the heir, she was convinced there had been some development which Charlotte was aware of. Her implied championship of Harry demonstrated what Lady Weare had for some time suspected, that Charlotte, whether she knew it herself or not, and her mother rather thought she did not, was becoming too deeply attached to her cousin.
    Dispassionately considering the notion, which had frequently occurred to her, of a match between her daughter and nephew, she decided she would welcome it, for Harry was a most charming and delightful man despite his occasional wildness, and if he loved Charlotte would make her blissfully happy. But did he love her? It did not seem so if he were pursuing Elizabeth, and Lady Weare had no intention of permitting her daughter to pine for him. Charlotte would have plenty of opportunity in the coming season of meeting other young men, and if her youthful adoration of Harry changed into love for another man, it might be the best outcome.
    * * * *
    The ladies soon left the men to their port, and in the drawing-room began to pour over the latest fashion plates. Charlotte found she was suddenly interested.
    “How delightful it is to have an unexceptional excuse for buying lots of new clothes, my love! I need almost as many as you do if I am to do you credit, for there’s nothing so off-putting as a dowdy chaperon! I can recall being so very ashamed of my Aunt Mary when she took me with her to a ball, because she was wearing the most antiquated gown you can imagine!”
    “You’d never do that,” Charlotte declared, “for you’re always the first to adopt any new fashion at home. Why, even Elizabeth copies you, though she’d never admit it!”
    “I’ve no doubt Elizabeth will attract a great deal of attention, she is very lovely,” her mother commented.
    Charlotte frowned. She had noticed it in Sussex, and knew it would be the same here in London.
    “Yes, but have you noticed she always agrees with what the men say to her, whether she really believes it or not? I could not dissemble so!”
    Her mother laughed, and stretched out a hand to caress her daughter’s dark curls.
    “I had noticed,” she replied a trifle ruefully. “Yet have you not noticed men do not care to be contradicted? It does not do, my love, to show them too independent a spirit, for they like to think they order everything as it pleases them, and that we depend on them for our every comfort.”
    “Huh!” was all the reply Charlotte vouchsafed to this. If she ever married, she would not be prepared to accept all her husband said, and be afraid to contradict him or argue when she knew he was in the wrong.
    “They like to believe themselves the masters,