Return of the Long Lost Earl: Historical Regency Romance Mystery by Kate Carteret

Author:Kate Carteret [Carteret, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Dashing Dandies Publishing
Published: 2019-08-02T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

Mrs Marsha Price was a fine old lady of good education and limited means. She was approaching eighty years old, surviving a most adored husband by some twenty years already. She was cousin to Lady Kingsmead’s departed mother and a treasured relative.

As Lady Kingsmead told Geraldine, Marsha Price might have been thought by some not to have married well, given that her husband was not a terribly wealthy man. But as far as Lady Kingsmead was concerned, there was not a woman in all of England who had married better than Marsha had; she had married for love, and it was a great and abiding love which transcended the separation of death.

The Manor house at Wollaston was antiquated, ramshackle, and completely adorable. It was just another reminder to Geraldine that she had become tired with the seeming perfection of everything she looked at. Her father’s grand estate, her mother’s careful decoration, and the idea of being a Countess in a fine home like Kingsmead Hall. If Geraldine could have her freedom, she would be happy to live out the rest of her days in an old manor house in the middle of nowhere.

The journey had been rather an easy one, with Geraldine and Lady Kingsmead arriving in Northamptonshire by mid-afternoon. After a little rest, they dressed for dinner and Geraldine ate in contented silence as she listened to the two ladies talk almost non-stop.

Lady Kingsmead was at her ease, as was her cousin, and it was clear to Geraldine that her friend was a regular visitor to her aging relative. It was also clear that the two of them had the sort of friendship that never ran out of conversation, reminding her of her own dear Diana. How much she missed her; how much the two of them would have to catch up on when they saw one another again. Correspondence was a wonderful thing, but it was no substitute for talking at great speed, with great excitement, and seeing the expression on your dear friend’s face as you did so.

The following morning, Geraldine realised that she had slept surprisingly well, given that she did not generally take to a different bed immediately. Perhaps she was changing, becoming more well-rounded and accepting. The last weeks with Lady Kingsmead had done her good; she felt none of her customary awkwardness in new surroundings, but rather enjoyed meeting Mrs Price and felt confident in herself. How much she had missed out on in her own home.

“I should dearly love to see him, Edith. Can you not have him come here, my dear? Stay on a day or two when he has finished at the Admiralty and have him come to see me, let me look at him,” Marsha Price said at breakfast the next morning.

Captain Winters had, of course, commandeered much of the ladies’ conversation. Lady Kingsmead had told her cousin everything three times over and had been glad to do so. It was clear that she enjoyed talking about the young man she was becoming convinced really was her son.

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