The Dashing Widow by Elizabeth Bramwell

Author:Elizabeth Bramwell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2016-05-02T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

G eorge danced the next set with the young daughter of an old friend; a pretty enough child of seventeen, but she was shy and rarely answered his questions with more than a frightened “yes, sir,” or “no, my Lord.”

The set lasted a full half hour, and throughout that time he was treated to tantalising glimpses of Abigail Merriweather as she danced with a tall, handsome soldier. She moved with all her usual grace, her eyes were bright and her laughter only served to enhance her beauty.

George was thankful when the dancing finally came to an end and he could escort his young companion back to her waiting mother. He spied Alistair Loughcroft and a group of friends on the far side of the room, and made his way over to them. He made idle small talk for a short while, but his eyes were on Abigail as she crossed the room on the arm of another dashing blade in a military uniform. A stab of jealousy cut right through to his heart, and he turned away so that he could not see her laughing.

Lord Loughcroft moved to stand beside him.

“You were stupid, you know,” said Alistair. “You made Abby look foolish.”

“She did that herself,” replied George, but without conviction. Guilt over his own conduct had long since drowned his anger.

“No it was definitely you, old fellow. Abby was winning that battle with the old tabbies until you showed up. I’d have thought that you would know by now that she has a dashed quick tongue in her head. Would you rather she had sat there all prim and proper while she could hear her nature, her birth, her late husband and her intellect called into disrepute? Doing it too brown, George! Far too brown!”

The truth of this observation cut to the quick. Despite Alistair’s conversational tone, George felt like he’d received a rake down at the hands of a master.

“She shouldn’t have said it, of course,” continued his friend, “but I’ll be damned if I would have thought more of her for behaving with propriety. Not at all the thing, what those women said about her, and I was impressed by her retort. Thing is, Abby is full of pluck and that’s what I like about her, and despite your claims to the contrary, I rather thought it was what you liked so much about her, too.”

He did not wait for an answer, instead sauntering off towards Lord Putney as though he had been talking of nothing but everyday trivialities.

The next dancing set was beginning to form, and Abigail was led to the floor by a handsome young Marquis whose mother would no doubt be terrified about the prospect of him falling in love with the scandalous Mrs Merriweather. The image made him smile, and he admitted to himself that, no matter how many of the Ton’s matchmaking mamas took Abigail in dislike, she would always be popular amongst the dashing, the fun-loving and the gentlemen. As he

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.