A Gentleman and a Scoundrel by Norma Darcy

Author:Norma Darcy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Norma Darcy
Published: 2013-05-03T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Louisa lay on her back on the warm flat rock, bathing in the warm afternoon sunshine and staring up at the ocean of blue sky above her. The trees around her reached up into the blue, the green leafy branches almost ensnaring the tiny cotton-bud white clouds as they scudded by. The waterfall rushed at her feet, the sound of churning, falling water whooshed in her ears. Her bare toes dangled over the edge of the rock, skimming the cool surface of the raging torrent.

She was clothed in nothing more than her chemise, as her sister was beside her. She and Emma had been swimming in the pool at the foot of the waterfall and had climbed up here to the top, out of the shadows into the full heat of the sun to dry off, their hair soaking wet and matted in great clumps, the white material of their shifts clinging wetly to their backs and indecently to the womanly curves of their figures.

Had their father seen them he would have been shocked; had anyone else seen them they might have been ruined. But Louisa and her sisters had thought of the waterfall as their own private space since they were children, and no-one ever seemed to go there but them. It was situated on the border between Mr Ashworth’s property and that of his neighbour, Mr Deverill, and it was disputed as to which estate owned it. Neither of the gentlemen ever seemed to go there and so the girls since they had been old enough to swim had often trespassed on a hot summer’s day to splash about in the pool.

“So then what happened?” Emma asked gently, plucking the damp material of her shift away from her breasts. “Did you dance with him?”

Louisa sighed from the rock beside her, tracing shapes in the clouds with one fingertip extended towards the sky. She let her hand fall back against her chest. “Yes, twice,” she replied, frowning at a bird hovering overhead. “Then he sent me flowers the next day, pink roses, but that doesn’t signify because every gentleman sends flowers after a ball.”

“Not every gentleman, my love. How intolerably vain that sounds.”

Louisa gave a gurgle of laughter. “I did not mean it quite like that. What I meant was that every gentleman I danced with at that ball sent me flowers so one cannot set any store by him sending me them too.”

“No, I suppose not. And then?”

“And then we met his sister Jane, Lady Myall, when we were out driving in Hyde Park. I have to confess that I have never liked her. She was so intolerably rude to me, Emmy, that it was all I could do not to lose my temper with her. Malvern looked rather mortified at her behaviour and apologised as we drove home. But then the following week I was shopping with Aunt Garbey and just as I was leaving the circulating library, who should I bump into but Lady Myall? It had started to rain and I had four books under my arm that were getting wet.

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