Ghosts of Winter by Rebecca S. Buck

Author:Rebecca S. Buck [Buck, Rebecca S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
ISBN: 9781602825147
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2011-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

Winter Manor, 1751

Lord William Fitzsimmons Winter leaned on his ornamental walking cane and gazed up at the façade of Winter Manor. Though late in the evening, it was June and only just dusk. The half-light made the house with its pale frontage appear ethereal, as though it might vanish if he were to blink. He looked with awe upon his creation, a thing of classical beauty, following the strict lines of ancient Greece, his dream land. He could not transplant himself to the Greece of Socrates, but at least, in Winter, he could capture a little of the perfectly proportioned style of those times.

He’d inherited Winter Manor from his father five years previously, and the house which had occupied this spot had been a small, dark, and tiresome Tudor residence. He despised insular, rambling buildings and ordered its demolition almost immediately. For most of the period of the construction of his new home he’d sojourned in his London town house, relishing his ability to speak to his acquaintances of his impressive country house in the North. His good friend, Sir Robert Hodgson, who studied architecture as one of his many scholarly pursuits and understood his desire for Greek beauty, had sketched the plans for the building on his behalf, and had undertaken to supervise the project, for a quite extraordinary fee. Lord William rather liked paying over the odds for his house. It made him feel indulgent and decadent.

He had been in the North for a month now, ensuring the finishing touches of his new home were undertaken to perfection. Overall, he was very pleased though well aware he’d allowed the more baroque aspects of his nature to run wild in the interior décor of the house—the sweeping luxury of curves and silks was hard to resist. He looked up to the clock tower, its curvaceous design at odds with the rest of the house. It was the one part of the house that broke the rules, his rebellion, and it made him smile, feeling rather wicked.

The bitter smell of burning reached his nostrils, and he watched as two male servants lit the torches he’d had placed between where the driveway exited the avenue of trees and where his friends’ carriages would stop in front of the house. They would begin to arrive any minute, and Lord William was excited. It was his first house party at Winter, the first time he’d been able to entertain friends as master of his own country house, emerging finally from his father’s shadow. He’d invited only his closest friends today, and planned to unveil the house to his acquaintance at large at the ball he would hold in August.

He glanced down at his appearance once more, though he had examined every detail in the looking glass several times over before coming out to the front of the house to wait for his guests. His finely embroidered coat was newly made for this occasion. The material was heavy and expensive, the cut perfect, with panels to emphasise the fullness of his hips, but cut close to his slim body about his chest.

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