The Marriage Wager by Jane Ashford

Author:Jane Ashford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Bantam Books
Published: 2012-06-04T22:40:51+00:00

The new baroness St. Mawr walked slowly across the square toward her London townhouse, preoccupied with the two scraps of wallpaper she held. She looked back and forth between them, unable to decide which she would prefer to have hung in her bedchamber in Cornwall. "What do you think, Ferik?" she asked, holding them up so that her giant servant could see them. "Do you like the rose garlands, or the stripes?"

"Neither of them is as beautiful as the other one, mistress," was the reply.

Emma sighed. Ferik had become inexplicably attached to a different pattern at the shop, his interested participation in the choice thoroughly scandalizing the prim proprietor. "I will not have galloping horses and raging storm clouds on my walls," she repeated for the sixth time. "It must be one of these."

"The other is more exciting," he insisted.

"Too exciting. No, it must be one of these. I will not look at another pattern. After just one morning of it, my head is spinning."

"The things in English houses are insipid," said Ferik.

Emma looked up at him in surprise.

"I have learned a new word," he informed her proudly. "From that silly little man in the shop."

When she did not appear to comprehend at once, he added, "He said the yellow paper was insipid."

"Yes, I remember."

"He meant dull and without life," Ferik continued. "He was insipid."

Emma stifled a laugh. "You must not say so, Ferik," she admonished.

He grunted. "Not to say, not to do, not to noticeùthis is the English," he muttered. Looking petulant, he lapsed into silence.

But Emma was used to his complaints by this time. She merely held up the wallpaper samples again. "It is so difficult to imagine what they will look like on the walls when you have only a small piece," she said.

"The horses would look very fine," insisted Ferik. "Strong and splendid."

Emma imagined lines of snorting blue horses racing along her bedroom walls. She imagined Colin's reaction to them. "I know, I will ask Caroline," she decided. She tucked the samples into her bag. Colin's sister had been very enthusiastic about Emma's plan to refurbish Trevallan. Indeed, in the week they had been back in London, she had made a great effort to further their acquaintance. Colin's mother, on the other hand, had done only her duty, procuring the invitations Colin demanded for his new wife and introducing her to the leaders of the ton but showing no great enthusiasm for the task.

Approaching the house, Emma sighed. They had attended some evening party or event every night since their return. Obviously, she had been right in thinking Colin was extremely fond of fashionable society. She herself found much of it dull and irritating, but she was determined to do her part. He would not lose the life he loved because of her.

There was a woman standing before the house, Emma noticed, gazing up at the windows as if they held some important secret. She was dressed from head to foot in expensive black mourning clothes, and in one hand she held a formal bouquet tied with long pink ribbons.

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