The General's Granddaughter by Dorothy Mack

Author:Dorothy Mack [Mack, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781913518301
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-01-05T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Sarah’s eagerness to meet Lord Eversley again, this time on his home ground, was somewhat tempered by a natural feminine disinclination to appear at a disadvantage in the company of other females. Of course, she would always be at a disadvantage in her cousin’s company, she allowed, staring gloomily at the peach dress in the long glass in her room, by virtue of Arabella’s youthful sparkle and dramatic colouring. How could any other female not appear washed out and insipid by comparison? Be that as it may, there was no denying it would have given her own flagging confidence a fillip to enter Eversley attired in a modish gown fashioned of some soft luxuriant fabric and featuring no fewer than three flounces on its skirt.

She was caught up in an adolescent but eminently satisfying daydream in which Lord Eversley, oblivious to Arabella’s provocative lures, had eyes only for herself, clad in a shimmering cloth-of-gold creation that wrung cries of envy from her cousin, when a knock on the door announced Maria’s arrival to dress her hair. Like an iridescent soap bubble, Sarah’s mental vision vanished without a trace, and flags of guilty colour flew into her cheeks at the folly of indulging in such nonsense.

“My, don’t you look pretty in that gown,” Maria observed innocently. “It gives you a lovely colour.”

Sarah smiled her thanks and pointed to the bronze-green bonnet lying on her bed. “I’ll be wearing this hat today, Maria, so we’ll need to keep my hair pinned a bit lower at the back than I normally wear it.”

Maria was captivated by the bonnet and proceeded to place it on her mistress’ head to gauge the effect before she removed the pins anchoring the heavy knot and started brushing Sarah’s long hair.

Maria really did possess clever fingers and a good eye for design, Sarah decided some fifteen minutes later as she surveyed the results of the young girl’s enthusiastic labour in a hand mirror. She was warm in her praise of the skilfully twisted coil positioned at the nape of the neck below the extravagant bonnet. Maria’s eyes shone with pride and pleasure as she blushingly accepted her mistress’s compliments, and she exclaimed in genuine admiration as Sarah donned the matching spencer Lottie had made.

“You do look a picture, miss. Isn’t it lucky today is sunny and warm enough to do without a pelisse?”

Encouraged by the maid’s generous approval, Sarah ran down the backstairs to say goodbye to her grandfather before the Beech Hill party left for Eversley.

Sir Hector, who planned to spend a quiet day in his room in hopes of joining his family for dinner, was reading in the chair by the fireplace, wearing his blue dressing gown, as he had two days before. His face looked more rested today and there was no sign of shakiness in the hands that lowered the book to his lap on his granddaughter’s entrance.

Shrewd black eyes in their nest of deep lines skimmed over Sarah from top to toe and came back to her sweetly flushed face.

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.