Lady Arabella and the Baron by Isabella Thorne

Author:Isabella Thorne [Thorne, Isabella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mikita Associates

Part III

Chapter 13

Lady Arabella found herself pacing in her pale blue morning dress. Luckily, she had worn sturdy walking shoes rather than her slippers which would have already been ruined by the damp grass and the uneven ground beneath her feet.

It had taken some doing to find a way to arrange a discrete meeting with Lord Willingham, but she found that she rather relished the challenge. It, at least, was a definite, concrete task with a clear measure of success unlike her real challenge of thwarting Sir James Randall. In that area she felt as if it were impossible to make any progress whatsoever.

The abandoned stone dovecote that was slowly crumbling to ruins on the edge of the Ashbury estate was decidedly dusty and drafty, but as no one had any reason to venture there, they were unlikely to be discovered, and that was all that mattered.

“Whatever am I going to do?” Arabella groaned, more than a little surprised at the unladylike tone of her own voice. “I cannot possibly keep up this charade much longer. If Ellen weren’t so utterly bewitched by that horrible creature she would surely have noticed long before now how false and insincere is my every word. I hate lying to her, but what else can I do?”

“I believe you have chosen the wisest course of action, Lady Arabella,” Lord Willingham replied evenly.

She could not claim that either his voice or manner seemed particularly soothing, yet she felt oddly soothed by his presence, nevertheless.

“How wise can it be, when I have accomplished nothing in the length of an entire fortnight?” she demanded, whirling about impatiently. Dust motes, glinting in the shaft of sunlight that streamed through the single window high in the old stone wall, swirled about her in sympathy. She did not notice them, or the distinctly admiring gaze with which Lord Willingham regarded the sight. “Ellen will be wed to that monster before I have managed to so much as cast a shadow of doubt in her regard for him.”

“If you had attempted a more direct approach, I assure you that Randall would have alienated Ellen from you so entirely that you would be unable to so much as speak to her. It must be unspeakably difficult to maintain this ruse, I can appreciate that, for there is nothing I would like half so much as to horsewhip the scoundrel. But unfortunately, there is really no other strategy that I can see which offers any hope of success. He is too entrenched in society, and more so, entrenched in your friend’s heart. The best strategy is to open her eyes to his deception.”

“I struggle to believe that this miserable strategy has a hope of succeeding,” Arabella sighed, starting to sit down gingerly on a rickety bench that was none too clean, but changing her mind. The pale blue muslin of her gown would show every speck of dirt and it would be too difficult to explain how she had managed to ruin it. Instead, she began to pace.

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