Regency Masquerade Read Online Free PDF Page B

this exchange, darted off for the coffee. Hartly sat in the vacant chair between Sir David and Lady Crieff.
    Lady Crieff tried the wine and said, “I congratulate you on your taste. This is quite as good as what comes out of Sir Aubrey’s cellar. Are you from these parts, Mr. Hartly?”
    “No, from Devon. I am on holiday. I shall be going on to London to visit relatives when the spirit moves me.”
    She sighed. “How nice to be a footloose bachelor.” She let her voice rise a notch to indicate interest. “Or perhaps I am taking too much for granted to assume you are not married?” she asked.
    “I am a bachelor. And where are you folks from?”
    “Scotland.”
    “I own a great big sheep farm in the Moorfoot Hills,” Sir David boasted. “P’raps you have heard of it—Penworth Hall?”
    “No, I have never been to Scotland. I hear it is beautiful. How large a flock do you have, Sir David?”
    “Hundreds,” he said, looking helplessly to Lady Crieff.
    “Ninnyhammer,” she scolded. “Sir David has over a thousand sheep, Mr. Hartly. And two thousand acres,” she added, choosing numbers that sounded impressive without stretching the bounds of credibility. The journals had stated only that Penworth Hall was a large, prosperous estate.
    She turned to Sir David. “And it is high time you informed yourself of your estate, David. It is all yours, now that your papa has stuck his fork in the wall. I, alas, got only—but Mr. Hartly is not interested in me,” she said, with a coquettish glance.
    The incident raised a doubt in Hartly’s mind. Odd that a lad of sixteen or so years was unaware of the extent of his holdings. He would get him alone soon and give him a more thorough quizzing. It also raised the question—what had Lady Crieff got? She had been carrying a padlocked case, presumably of jewels. He looked at the diamond necklace at her throat. It was modest but genuine. Iridescent prisms glowed in its depths when she moved. They danced over the satin mounds of her breasts, which just peeped over the top of her gown. When she noticed where he was looking, she gave him a knowing smile, then pulled her shawl over her bosom.
    “My own estate specializes in cattle,” he said. “Have you seen anything of the neighborhood yet?”
    He pitched his question between the two, for he wanted to include the young lad in any outing.
    “We just arrived this afternoon,” Lady Crieff replied. “It seems a desolate enough place. Not a decent shop to be seen. I daresay there are no assemblies at Blaxstead?”
    “Like you, I have just arrived. We arrived at the same time, I believe,” he mentioned. “I plan to drive about the neighborhood tomorrow to see what entertainments offer. Might I induce you to join me?”
    “Now, that is what I call neighborly, Mr. Hartly. I should like it, of all things!” Lady Crieff replied, but she accepted with an air of conferring a favor and went on to add that David must accompany them. “Not that I mean to say I mistrust you, but for the looks of it, you know. I shall be happy to go. I am not one to look down on a fellow just because he does not have a handle to his name. I invited every gentleman who owned a decent jacket to my routs at Penworth. I have had over a hundred in the ballroom at one time, have I not, David? I try to round up a few spare gents, you must know, so the plainer girls do not have to sit on their haunches all evening.”
    “How exceedingly considerate of you,” Hartly replied, chewing back a grin.
    She smiled her pleasure. “Everyone said I had the best parties in the neighborhood. Mind you, Sir Aubrey was not too fond of them, but I could always get around him.”
    “I wager you could.”
    Hartly was happy that David interrupted the conversation, for he hardly knew how to converse with such a vulgar piece of merchandise. Were it not for the suspicion that she had something to do with Stanby, he would have left long ago. He felt a rankling annoyance that her