An Impetuous Miss by Chase Comstock Mary

Author:Chase Comstock, Mary
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Renegade Books
Published: 2013-04-26T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The next day, Cat was much surprised to find that Mr. Abelwhite had called while she was out on her morning stroll, as well as several of her other partners from the previous evening. She was even more astounded late that afternoon when she was informed by one of the Birdies that Sir Harold Talbot was awaiting her pleasure in the drawing room. Still somewhat unnerved by his odious pronouncements on dog training, she repressed a thoroughly unladylike groan. Quickly checking her toilette, however, she steeled herself to face his annoying presumption and made her way down the stairs, hoping his call would be a brief one.

“Ah, Miss Mansard,” he greeted her heartily from the depths of an overstuffed chair. “You will forgive me if I do not rise. The gout, you see.”

“Indeed, Sir Harold, pray, do not discommode yourself,” she told him as she entered, remembering to leave the door well ajar. Cat seated herself and exchanged a few pleasantries with the gentleman. Then, a stony silence reigned. Given his loquaciousness on the prior evening, she was at something of a loss. To hide her discomfiture, she began to stitch at a piece of Eveline's fancy-work in a frame by the fireplace. Making even more of a muddle of the threads than was her habit, Cat felt a little guilty knowing that her friend must very likely duplicate several hours of work as a result of her meddling. When she looked up from this hapless undertaking, however, she was unnerved to see Sir Harold now staring quite boldly at her bosom. Worse, yet, when he encountered her shocked expression, he merely smiled.

Unable to bear more of his silent scrutiny, she blushed and endeavored to begin a conversation, “In this fine weather I imagine you must find your impairment most taxing, Sir Harold. Surely the call of the hunt must be beckoning to you.”

“Quite so, Miss Mansard, quite so. But one has other considerations. Health, of course, and, ahem, social affairs.” That little speech seemed to have taxed his conversational repertoire, and in the silence that followed, he returned to his silent contemplation of her physical attributes.

“Do tell me about your hounds,” she ventured at last, desperate to turn his attention. Cat had, quite naturally, little desire to hear more of those creatures against whom her own darlings had been so disagreeably compared on the previous evening. She was, however, gratified to find that the introduction of this favorite subject at last unlocked Sir Harold's tongue, and the gentleman waxed poetic on the relative virtues of various breeds for a good twenty minutes or more.

“There is no finer beast in all of England than my Ruffian, I'll be bound, Miss Mansard. And I wager he would make short work of your dandified pair, had he the chance.” As if on cue, Caesar and Brutus chose just that moment to bound into the drawing room. Finding an unexpected visitor, they were at once their sociable, if vexatious, selves, and were soon dancing circles about Sir Harold, begging to be made much over.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.