Lady Lorna by Joan Smith

Author:Joan Smith [Smith, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 2016-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

We could not complain of a lack of company that day. We had half a dozen callers, one more in the morning and two groups of two in the afternoon. Each time I rushed to the house to see why they had come. All of them came for no other reason than to assess the soi-disant Lady Lorna. All had made up their minds before they set eyes on her. All were viciously rude, and all got as good as they gave. It was hard to believe Lady Lorna’s high-handed treatment came from anyone but a genuine lady.

I was not long in figuring out why they all descended on us at that time. Lady Mary had put them up to it. And she had let them know that in her opinion the guest was no more Lady Lorna than she was Marie Antoinette. As the uncontested leader of society in the neighbourhood, she had them all under her thumb.

This was how she was handling last night’s fiasco. She was trying to drive Lorna out by making her feel so unwelcome she left. And perhaps trying to force Mama to put her out too. It had quite the opposite effect on me. I was more than ever determined to prove Lady Mary wrong. If Lorna had behaved badly, she had done no worse than her aunt.

When Mr. Beamer called on Mama around four that afternoon I left the park and went inside to hear if he had heard rumours of our visit to the Abbey. Lorna had had enough of being insulted and rose almost at once saying she wanted to put the ribbons on her new gown and went abovestairs. I was on thorns lest Beamer had got wind of what Lorna and I had done, but he didn’t seem to know anything about it. I didn’t think Lady Mary had got at him at all. He had just come to see if he could take Mama and myself to Larson’s rout party, as was his custom.

“Oh we are not going this year, Bernie,” she said, trying to sound as if the decision was ours.

He shook his head. “I take it your guest did not receive an invitation? That is no reason for you to stay away.”

“We were not invited, Bernie,” she said, pinching her lips to keep them from trembling.

“Ah, I feared it might come to this. You must turn the woman off, Lucy. I have made enquiries at the coach house in Colchester. It seems she did take the coach to Colchester as she told you, but how did she get here from there?”

“What difference does it make how she got here?” Mama snapped. Beamer blinked in surprise at this unusual display of temper. “She may have walked for all I know. She hadn’t any money.”

“And you are her banker,” he said, with another rueful shake of his head.

“Fiddlesticks! A few pounds to buy her little necessities. She is still my old friend, even if she has — changed.

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