The Waverly Women Series 3 Books by MC Beaton

Author:MC Beaton [Beaton, MC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Clean Romance, Humour - Romantic Comedy
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2014-09-01T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

As soon as Mrs. Waverley had finished her morning lessons and left to examine the housekeeping book, Felicity slammed shut her Latin primer and said, “What ails you, Freddy? You look so tired and worn. Didn’t you sleep?”

“No, I didn’t sleep,” said Frederica. “Oh, Felicity, I have made such a fool of myself.”

“How so?”

“Lord Harry led me to believe he wanted to marry me, but instead he was playing a game to amuse himself.”

“What is this? You cannot have seen him alone…. So that’s why you picked a quarrel with me yesterday. You went off to meet him. For shame, Frederica! You, of all people, to be so easily gulled by such as he.”

“You see, Lady Harriet is not his sister. She is not even Lady Harriet. She is an actress called Caroline James. Lord Harry hired her to plead his case.”

“So he has been using one old mistress to entrap a new and younger one?”

“Miss James told me she had never been his mistress and I believe her. She said she could no longer go on with the masquerade. She said she had done it because she owes Lord Harry a great debt. I feel so wretched, so foolish. I let him kiss me, Felicity.”

Felicity looked at her sadly. “There is something so wild and unbridled about you, Frederica. You must realize that our background is such that no one of any standing can want to marry us.”

“Tredair married Fanny,” said Frederica stubbornly.

“But he did want to marry her at all times, did he not? He did not hire an actress.”

“What am I to do? He has taken the house next door.”

“Just be thankful his lusting after you put him next door, where he was able to save you from those thieves, and forget him. You must tell Mrs. Waverley.”

“No!”

“Yes, you must. For what if he returns to the attack?”

Frederica shook her head. But the fact that she really should tell Mrs. Waverley weighed heavily on her mind. At last, by early afternoon, she felt she could bear it no longer. She went to see Mrs. Waverley, who was sitting at a desk in the drawing room, writing letters.

Mrs. Waverley heard her out in grim silence. Frederica left out the bit about the meeting in the garden and the kiss.

“Frederica,” said Mrs. Waverley, “you must remember we do not know your origins, and they were no doubt common, which is why you do things that no gently bred lady would even think of doing, such as encouraging the attentions of a rake like Lord Harry. Oh, yes! When we were leaving for Lady Mackay’s, I noticed how you fawned on him in that bold way.”

“I was merely trying to thank him properly for saving my life,” said Frederica, “a politeness you seemed determined to deny him.”

“Has it not occurred to you,” said Mrs. Waverley, “that a man who hires an actress to impersonate his sister may well have corrupted our poor maid, Annie Souter, and arranged that so-called robbery so as to appear a hero in your eyes?”

Frederica shivered.

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