Earl of Woodcliffe by Aileen Fish

Author:Aileen Fish
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

December 1817

London

* * *

December in Town was as dreary and dismal as a foggy, rocky beach in the dead of winter, all grey and lonely. Everyone still mourned their beloved Princess Charlotte who had died just a month prior while giving birth to a stillborn son. Then came a moment of brightness when a new book was published by one of Mercy’s favorite authors, who she’d finally learned was Jane Austen. The brightness clouded quickly when Mercy learned Miss Austen had died in the summer. She felt like she’d lost a friend whose name she’d only just learned.

The fact that her friends were all at their country houses gave her few options for entertainment. Markham was busy doing whatever it was the heir to a dukedom did. Papa had insisted he remain in Town for business purposes, and Mama went wherever Papa was. Mercy supposed she could beg one of her friends for an invitation to visit, but with Christmas drawing near, she felt she should be near Mama.

And so she was bored. Not quite as bored as when she and the girls had made their wager—which no one had won yet—but nearly so. Each morning she checked the salver in the hallway in search of an invitation to something…anything, but they only received notes announcing morning calls from some of Mama’s friends.

Mercy had given up hope of a missive from Woodcliffe some months ago. He never explained why he hadn’t come to Lady Bellinger’s assembly. He never offered to help her win at another venue. She was silly to have expected him to. Her request was so far removed from anything proper, he was proven a gentleman for ignoring her. It didn’t matter if he’d come to his senses or if Markham had threatened him again, she was better off not kissing Woodcliffe.

One of the few outings Mercy and her mother did with any regularity was to attend Sunday service at St. George’s Cathedral. While it wasn’t exciting, it gave her a sense of belonging to something important. The service made up for not taking baskets to the needy in the village near her family seat.

Realizing how altruistic that sounded, she chided herself. Attending church services simply gave some structure to an endless week.

Two weeks before Christmas, Mercy waited with Papa and Mama to greet the pastor at the door after the service ended, when she noticed a man standing two people to her right. Not a man, Woodcliffe. She reached across the other patrons and tapped his arm. “Good morning, Woodcliffe.”

Turning his head, his smile grew from polite to friendly, carrying into his eyes. “Good morning. I’m pleased to see you.”

Her stomach fluttered. “How is it we’ve gone to the same church all these years and I’ve never seen you?”

“I…er, that is, I’m not a regular attendee. But the season is upon us, so here I am.”

Here he was, six months since she last saw him. Due to their location she couldn’t even tease him about the wager, which was best forgotten anyway.

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.