Drawn to Lord Ravenscar by Anne Herries

Author:Anne Herries
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-01-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The next few days brought a stream of visitors to their house and a flood of invitations. They attended their first public assembly and Lady Dawlish was to be seen in the Pump Room most mornings, where she attempted a sip or two of the water. However, Lucy and Judith were more often out walking, shopping or driving. Between them they had more than twenty admirers, all of whom found excuses to call or to walk in the gardens when the ladies took the air.

‘It is vastly amusing, is it not?’ Judith said to Lucy when they were preparing for yet another evening party. ‘I am not sure who is the most ardent of your suitors, Cousin. Would you say it was Lord Brough or Sir Arden?’

‘I really do not think that any of them mean anything by it,’ Lucy said, for she thought most of the young men that flocked about them idle and so wealthy that they needed constant amusement to prevent them from boredom. ‘Perhaps Mr Havers might be more serious than his friends...’

‘James Havers is the very one for you, though I would not have picked him out,’ Judith said. ‘He is extremely rich, you know, though he has no title and will not—unless his two male cousins were to die.’

‘How shocking if they should,’ Lucy said. If she had not believed her cousin to be teasing, she would have found her words truly shameful indeed. ‘I do not know that he likes me above any other lady of his acquaintance.’

‘That is nothing to the point,’ Judith cried, her eyes bright with mockery. ‘If you thought he would suit, we could devise a way to bring him up to scratch. It is easy enough, for we need only contrive to lock him in a room with you and then discover you in his arms.’

‘Cousin! You go too far,’ Lucy reproved. ‘I am in no hurry to marry—it is you who has set your mind to it. Have you discovered anyone who would suit you?’

‘Oh, I do not know,’ Judith said and for a moment the light of laughter had left her eyes. ‘This husband-hunting is not as amusing as I had thought...though I suppose Elver would do. He is in earnest, I believe, and he has both title and fortune...but I think he might be a little too kind and I should hurt him.’

‘You do not care for him?’ Judith shook her head. There was something in her eyes then—a secret sorrow that made Lucy frown. Now she thought of it, her cousin had not been quite her usual self for days...since the earl left them.

Lucy had thought when they were at Dawlish that her cousin meant to have Paul Ravenscar, but Judith had not mentioned him once since they had come to Bath. She had, on the other hand, asked several times if Lucy thought the earl would return sooner rather than later.

‘I like him very well. I dare say he would be a comfortable husband,’ Judith said and sighed.

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