Joan Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

infinitely preferable to dining alone. Since they both had a common passion, the conversation never lagged. And Jane had a caustic wit that the Marquis found genuinely amusing. In fact, he enjoyed the company of his fifteen-year-old niece more than the company of a large number of his acquaintances.
    They were discussing Dolphin one evening when Jane broached the topic that had been on her mind for weeks. “You're running him this summer at Ascot, aren't you, Uncle Edward?"
    "Yes. In the Gold Cup."
    "And David is going?"
    "As he is responsible for the horse, assuredly he is going."
    Jane swallowed. “Then may I go, too?” she asked hopefully. She had always attended the racing meets at Newmarket, but the Marquis had never taken her to the meets at Epsom, Ascot, or any of the other tracks where his horses ran. Those occasions Lord Rayleigh had had no time for a child.
    Now he looked speculatively at the slender girl facing him across the table. He saw her beautiful high cheekbones beneath eyes that were as blue-green as the sea; he saw her white, even teeth, chewing at the moment on a fresh-colored but slightly chapped lip; he saw her magnificent candle-straight hair, neatly parted and tied, schoolgirl-like, at her nape. She was not yet a woman, but she was no longer a child. “You would need a chaperone,” he said slowly.
    Jane's face lit. “Kelly will come,” she said, breathless in her eagerness. “Oh, Uncle Edward, do let me come! This is the first horse that David has trained. Just think of how exciting it will be if he wins."
    Looking at the bone-deep beauty of his niece's face, Lord Rayleigh felt a quiver of apprehension. “Do you ever think of anyone except David, Jane?” he asked casually.
    "Of course I do,” she answered, surprised. “I think about you. And about Miss Becker. And about the horses, naturally."
    She was so transparently honest, he thought. Three people and a few horses: that was her world. She was still very much a child, after all. “Very well, Jane,” he said. “You may come with me to Ascot."
    Her eyes glowed like pale gems. “Thank you, Uncle Edward. I can't wait to tell David."
    * * * *
    Lord Rayleigh had rented an entire inn for the summer meet at Ascot. His entourage on these occasions was usually all male, but this time he had made some exceptions. Jane had been allowed to come not entirely out of altruistic motives. The Marquis was thinking about getting married.
    He was thirty-four years old, fifth Marquis of Rayleigh and head of the ancient Stanton family.
    It was his duty to marry and produce an heir. He had procrastinated for many years, enjoying his free bachelor life, but he knew what was due to his position. Jane's future, too, was on his mind. A suitable husband would have to be found for her, and who better to handle that than his wife? So he had invited Lady Bellerman and her daughter Anne as well as his cousin Sophia Carrington and her husband to join his party at Ascot. Anne Bellerman was a prime candidate for the role of future Marchioness of Rayleigh. She was twenty years old, soft-spoken, even-tempered, and pretty. The Marquis thought he might live with her very comfortably. It wouldn't be a bad idea, at any rate, for her to meet Jane.
    The Ascot meeting was to last five days. As Ascot was close to Windsor, the Prince of Wales usually entertained a large house party during that time; it was a social event as well as a race meet. An invitation to stay at Windsor or to join the parties of such famous noble owners as Lord Rayleigh was regarded as a social triumph. Very few of the beautiful women who appeared dutifully at the racetrack had come to see the horses.
    For Jane, of course, the races were everything. The prestige, at age fifteen, of being included in the Marquis's party quite eluded her. She was allowed to join the company for dinner, although when the ladies retired to leave the men to their wine she went, not to the drawing room, but upstairs to bed.
    It