Vintage Love by Clarissa Ross

Author:Clarissa Ross
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, classic
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2013-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The next morning she received an unusual message from Bart, an invitation to join him for a ride in his carriage that afternoon. She could only surmise that he wished to speak with her about something concerning James, and that it was of such a private nature he thought they had best meet and talk in the carriage. She put on a brown taffeta dress she’d purchased in Paris, and one of the wider-brimmed bonnets which were popular over there. Then she waited by the window overlooking the street until his carriage arrived.

London was slowly changing and becoming larger and more populous. Elgar Street was no longer a quiet residential area, as it had been twenty years ago. Business places had located at either end of the street, many new houses had been built, and its cobblestone surface was the route for several horse-drawn bus lines. As she watched, a two decker came by with the driver perched high at the upper level and four horses moving it along at a good rate. The upper section was open to all sorts of weather, but the lower seats were protected. The front wheels were smaller than the rear, and there were advertisements of many kinds painted along the red sides of the bus in gold letters.

A bicycle rider went by on the latest model with its two giant wheels, a hawker of fish and chips halted to shout his wares and move on, and then the elegant carriage of Bart Woods pulled up before her door. She at once hurried out; the driver helped her inside.

Bart was sitting in a corner of the shadowed interior with a blanket pulled up over his arthritis legs. In his stove-pipe hat and drab grey suit he looked nothing like the daring man she had once known. He was a tired, dejected figure, yet there was immense strength in his face.

She leaned forward and kissed him. “How nice of you to think of this.”

“I needed to talk with you,” he said. “And we can do a bit of sight-seeing at the same time.”

“A delightful idea,” she said, settling close beside him with a smile.

As the carriage started away, he asked her, “How did it go in Paris?”

“I’m hopeful.”

“Just hopeful?”

She gave him a knowing look. “I fear Anne inherited your strong character. She refuses to break with Donald until she returns and talks it all out with him.”

“Damn!” he said. “That means we may be faced with telling them the truth. It seems nothing short of that will make them change their minds.”

“It may not be as bad as you fear,” she said. “Donald has been seeing a fine young woman. And I have reason to assume that he is more than a little fond of her.”

He frowned. “I have gathered that. But he has been most mysterious about it. Refuses to tell me anything about her.”

“That is often the case with young men in love.”

“You think he may actually be in love?”

Becky nodded. “He has admitted to being confused.

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