Anita Mills by Miss Gordon's Mistake

Author:Miss Gordon's Mistake [Mistake, Miss Gordon's]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

13

KITTY ROSE EARLY after a nearly sleepless night and made her way downstairs, where she discovered her aunt and Roland already at breakfast. From the doorway, she discerned that he was telling Isabella about Lady Sturbridge’s peremptory possession of Colonel Rayne. To her relief, he failed to mention that Kitty and Jessica had been there also.

“Encroaching female,” Mrs. Merriman murmured. “As if he ought not to be brought here. After all, ’tis Kitty who abducted him, and therefore we who are responsible for his well-being, I should think.” She looked up, seeing her niece, and for once she did not appear vexed in the least. “La, love, but what a tale Rollo has brought home!”

“Really?” Kitty took her place across from her cousin and tried not to betray herself. “I am all ears, coz.”

“Naughty girl! Only fancy—Jessica’s Haverhill has passed on, poor man,” Isabella answered for her son. She paused, waiting for the news to have the desired effect on Kitty.

To her credit, the young woman appeared dismayed. “Oh—surely not! I mean, he is not—”

“Not this Haverhill, my love. As far as is known yet this morning, he survives still.” Favoring her niece with an excited smile, she announced triumphantly, “I own I could not credit it, but you have abducted Colonel Rayne! Haverhill is none other than Red Jack Rayne!”

“Haverhill, Aunt Bella?” Kitty asked, feigning shock. “Oh, but I don’t think—”

“ ’Tis he! Just think—he is in Sussex!” She stopped again, peering closely at Kitty. “You appear a trifle hagged, dearest, did you not rest well?”

“I had the headache,” Kitty lied.

“Again? I am afraid we shall have to consult Dr. Crawford about these megrims of yours. Lud, where was I? Oh, yes—Rollo stopped by the cottage on his way home from the village pub, and ’twas he who discovered Haverhill is not the Haverhill we thought.”

“Red Jack Rayne,” Rollo stated. “Hero of more battles than I can count.”

“A truly dashing fellow, or so I have read,” Isabella added. “I wish you had brought him directly here, though, for Louise Trevor has stolen the march on us and had him carried to Blackstone Hall. I must say, I think it rather odious of her to simply appropriate the colonel to herself,” she complained. “As if we should not have taken full responsibility for regaining his health.” Her eyes narrowed as Kitty buttered a piece of bread. “I must say that you do not appear overly surprised by this turn of events.”

“Daresay she don’t know who Jack Rayne is,” Roland interposed smoothly, coming to Kitty’s rescue. “In America during the Peninsular campaigns, after all.”

“I collect he must be a soldier.”

“Oh, my dear girl! Not just a soldier! Prinny decorated him with all London watching! Even Rollo left Oxford to see it.”

“An officer, then.”

“More than that—much more than that, my love! As I recall it, one of the papers called him a national treasure!”

“A national treasure? Surely not,” Kitty managed faintly. “He is but one man, after all.”

“Well, he ain’t Wellington,” Rollo conceded, “but he was with Old Douro through much of the war.

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