Season's Regency Greetings by Carla Kelly

Author:Carla Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: christmas, aristocracy, napoleonic wars, social status, previctorian
Publisher: Camel Press
Published: 2014-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

No Room at the Inn

“Mama, are we there yet?”

Mary McIntyre smiled, and added another entry to her growing list of what was going to make the single life so comfortable.

“I told you less than fifteen minutes ago that the snow is slowing our progress.”

Mary glanced at Agatha Shepard, her seat companion, who was doing her best not to glare at her offspring. I understand totally, Mary thought. She was no more inclined than a child to enjoy creeping along at a snail’s pace, through a rapidly developing storm.

She had left Coventry two days earlier, joining the travel of Thomas and Agatha Shepard and their two children from London, who were to spend Christmas in York with Agatha’s parents. The elder Shepards—he was a solicitor with Hailey and Tighe—already appeared somewhat tight around the lips when they stopped at her parents’ estate. In a whispered aside, Agatha said that Thomas had not made the trip any easier with his deep sighs each time the children insisted upon acting their age.

Mary understood perfectly; she had known Thomas for years. What was it that his younger brother Joe told her once? “If people could select their relatives, Thomas would be an orphan.”

As much as she liked Agatha, Mary never would have chosen the Shepards’ company for anything of greater length than an afternoon’s tour of Coventry’s wonderful cathedral. The fates had intervened, and dictated that she be on her way to Yorkshire. Two weeks ago, her station in life had changed drastically enough to amuse even the most hardened Greek god devoted to the workings of fate.

She wished she could pace around the confining carriage and contemplate the folly of an impulsive gesture, but such exercise would have to wait. Tommy and Clarice quarreled with each other, their invective having reached the dreary stages of “Did not! Did, too!” My head aches, she thought.

They should have stopped for the night in Leeds, even though they had scarcely passed the noon hour. Agatha’s timid “Thomas, dear, don’t you think …” had been quelled by a fierce glance from her lord and master.

“My dear Agatha, I pay our coachman an outrageous sum to be highly proficient,” he said. He glared around the carriage, his eyes resting finally on his squabbling olive branches. “Agatha, can you not do something about your children?” he asked, before returning to the legal brief in his lap.

We could dangle you outside the carriage until you turn blue, Mary thought. “Thomas, don’t you think it odd that we have not observed a single wheeled vehicle coming from the other direction in quite some time?” It’s worth a try, she thought. Let us see if I have any credit left with the family solicitor.

She discovered, to her chagrin, that she did not. Not even bothering to reply, the family solicitor stared at her. She sat back in embarrassment.

I suppose it is good to know where one stands in the greater scheme of events, she told herself later, when she felt like philosophizing.

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