01 Border Bride by Amanda Scott

Author:Amanda Scott [Scott, Amanda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480406346
Published: 2013-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

12

THE NEXT MORNING, AFTER a breakfast of cold boiled beef, porridge, and ale, Douglas announced that it was time for Mary Kate’s tour of the house. They began with the long gallery, an elegantly appointed chamber that stretched the entire rear width of the house and boasted fully glazed north and south walls overlooking the terrace, parterre, and hedge walls of the rear gardens as well as the peaceful inner court. Douglas drew Mary Kate’s attention to the huge twin fireplaces that faced each other from the end walls, but she was more impressed by the gallery’s linenfold wainscoting, the punched borders of which resembled elaborate stitchery, than she was with the exquisitely carved chimney pieces.

They paused to gaze at the garden view, then wandered to the east end, where a set of double doors opened into the bedchamber wing, consisting of four adjoining guest chambers, one pair facing the inner court and the second overlooking the herbary and the kitchen gardens. Next they came to a gloomy triangular hall that led to the rear stairs on one hand and to the front of the house on the other. Douglas pointed out his parents’ and Margaret’s rooms before they emerged into her ladyship’s sitting room, having completed a circuit of the first floor.

“There are only servants’ rooms upstairs,” he said as he opened the door into the window hall. “We’ll go on down—Good morning, Megan.”

Lady Somerville turned at the top of the stair, and Mary Kate saw that she was dressed for riding. She did not look so rosy-cheeked this morning. In fact, she seemed pale, but Mary Kate thought her depressingly beautiful nonetheless.

Douglas explained that they had been looking over the house.

“How interesting,” Megan said, her bored tone belying the polite phrase. “’Tis such a glorious day, though, that I had hoped you might join me for a ride. Both of you,” she added as an obvious afterthought.

“What about it, lass? We can finish this anytime.”

Mary Kate would have liked to point out that they could also go riding anytime, but she only protested that she was unsuitably clad. Douglas brushed her words aside, telling her they would wait while she changed, and Megan agreed with an enigmatic smile that spurred Mary Kate to greater haste than might otherwise have been the case. When she returned a short time later, they were laughing and the roses were back in Megan’s cheeks. Mary Kate bit her lip at their ease of manner, wondering if it truly had been five years and more since they were last together.

They soon reached the stable yard to find Sesi standing quietly and Valiant nervously beside a coal-black stallion, easily sixteen hands at the shoulder, who snorted and pawed impatiently at the hard ground. When the black heard his mistress’s voice, he responded with a twitch of his ears and a sound between a whinny and a chirp. Smiling broadly, Megan stroked his cheek. He snorted again, tossed his proud head, and pushed at her shoulder with his muzzle, making her laugh.

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