The Loves of Lord Granton by M. C. Beaton

Author:M. C. Beaton [Beaton, M. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7953-2060-6
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 1997-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Lord Granton awoke feeling more like a prisoner under house arrest than ever. The weather had turned warm and sultry again. He decided to go without breakfast, to walk toward the village. Perhaps he might by chance come across Frederica.

But there seemed to be a great many people moving about as he walked in the direction of the village, and he realized he could hardly walk about unnoticed. The news that he was abroad spread quickly to the rectory. The girls were told to put on their prettiest gowns, and Frederica was ordered to stay in her room.

Frederica decided to go to the stream and sit and watch the cool rushing water, for if Lord Granton called, she felt she could not bear to be shut up in her room on this fine day, hearing the sound of his voice belowstairs.

The pine wood was quiet and still. She walked through it, her feet making no sound on the carpet of needles at her feet.

She had taken a copy of the Ladies’ Magazine to read. Usually she read only the more serious essays, but for the first time she found herself reading an account of the gowns worn at a royal party. In comparison to the dresses worn by the aristocracy in London, her ball gown began to seem like nothing out of the common way. The Countess of Grosvenor, she read, had been wearing a crepe petticoat embroidered with draperies and variegated silver cord, with a border at the bottom to correspond. The train was of sea green satin and her headdress of diamonds and ostrich feathers. And here was the Duchess of Rutland: dress entirely of lace, the petticoat of honiton lace over pink sarcenet, the two draperies of point lace intermixed with wreaths of roses and jessamine, the draperies looped up with two long chains of diamonds; pink silk train, trimmed with lace; girdle and stomacher of diamonds.

But, then, these were court dresses, and at Court the ladies still sometimes wore the panniered gowns of the last century, often so bedecked with jewels and ornaments, she had heard, that they could hardly move.

She sighed and turned the pages to more serious matters. Here was an essay outlining the difference between men and women. “Could women,” she read, “be admitted to an equality with men, be recognised as rational partners, divide with them the schemes of life, enjoying the full intercourse of intellect, it certainly would be a beautiful scene; besides, the collision of so many developed understandings would undoubtedly contribute to the advancement of civilisation. We know not what revolutions in government might be saved, or to what sudden perfection laws might attain.”

“So this is where I find you!”

She gave a little gasp and looked up. Lord Granton smiled down at her.

Frederica put down her magazine and stood up. “Are you sure you have not been seen?” she asked anxiously. “The rectory was abuzz with the news of your approach, and I was sent to my room.”

“Why?” he demanded sharply.

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