Romance by M.C. Beaton

Author:M.C. Beaton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472112927
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

FOUR

A noble Lord, lately high in office, and who manifests a strong inclination to be reinstated in his political power, lost at the Union, a night or two back, 4,000 guineas before twelve o’clock; but continuing to play, his luck took a turn, and he rose a winner of a thousand before five the next morning.

MORNING HERALD, June 16, 1804

The following day, Lord Gyre rose early and, wrapped in a banan, made his way to the morning room. He planned to spend a peaceful hour before anyone else was awake reading the newspapers. But when he pushed open the door of the morning room, he saw Belinda seated at the table, her head bent over a newspaper. She was wearing an old blue cotton gown and her hair had not been put up. Shining, black and curly, it lay on her shoulders.

He would have retreated, but she looked up and saw him, and said, ‘Good morning, my lord.’ Her eyes were wide and friendly. Once again he experienced that sharp feeling of pique that this beauty should be so apparently unaware of him as a man.

He sat down opposite her. ‘Anything of interest?’

She smiled. ‘Only things that enrage me.’

‘Such as?’

‘Wife-selling.’

‘Ah. Well, that does not go on in our rarefied stratum of society.’

‘Just listen to this: “A man named John Gorsthorpe exposed his wife for sale in the market at Hull; but owing to the crowd which such an extraordinary occurrence had gathered together, he was obliged to defer the sale, and take her away. About four o’clock, however, he again brought her out and she was sold for twenty guineas, and delivered, in a halter, to a person named Houseman, who had lodged with them for four or five years.” Is that not dreadful?’

The marquess’s eyes mocked her. ‘Twenty guineas is a fair sum. The lodger must have wanted her badly.’

‘Then if that does not shock your cynical soul, do but listen to this! “One of those disgraceful scenes, which have, of late, become too common, took place on Friday se’nnight at Knaresborough. Owing to some jealousy, or other family difference, a man brought his wife in a halter and sold her at the market cross for sixpence and a quid of tobacco!” ’

Belinda rustled the paper furiously. ‘Women are not gaining any more respect or equality in this modern world. We are retreating into the Dark Ages.’

‘Not really. Such sales have been going on among the lower orders since time immemorial.’

‘And since times immemorial,’ flashed Belinda, ‘nothing has been done by the authorities to stop this dreadful trade. So it is not only the lower orders who have not progressed but the higher orders, too.’

‘There are worse ills abroad in the world – murder, rape, and pillage.’

‘Perhaps,’ she said tartly, ‘because it is a world run by men!’

‘You are indeed a bluestocking, Miss Belinda.’

‘Not I. If I were a bluestocking I might have more dignity and sense than to try to sell myself for this wretched house.’

Then she looked at him aghast, hardly able to believe what she had just said.

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.