Whistledown's Shrew: The Accidental Romance by Mansfield Elizabeth

Author:Mansfield, Elizabeth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Garden House Books
Published: 2023-12-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Intimacy develops quickly at a house-party where everyone realizes that they will have to endure each other’s companionship—and no other—for an entire fortnight. By the time the guests sat down to the first dinner, everyone had already learned all sorts of secrets: that Lady Trevellick was likely to fall asleep in her chair at any time, for example, or that the Admiral could not sit down to a meal without stealing outdoors first to “blow a cloud” with his cigar. During dinner, Cora revealed to half the table that the reason her betrothed, Sir Owen Tatlow, hadn’t come with the others was that he’d gone to Derbyshire to pay his respects to an uncle who had promised to write him into his will as soon as his nephew was wedded. And by the time dinner was over, Lily Dawes and Chloe (who had not met before) had already become fast friends, Colin has asked Lucienne to ride with him the next morning, and Mabyn and Perry were addressing each other by their first names.

Lady Rutherford had made only simple plans for her guests’ first evening at the Grange in order that they all, weary from their travels, might retire early. After the men had had their brandies, the party assembled in the music room where, Lady Rutherford announced, they would make their own entertainment for an hour or so. After a few moments of desultory conversation, Lily Dawes suggested opening the pianoforte. The hostess grasped at the idea as a drowning swimmer might at a lifeline, and she turned at once to Lucienne, whose reputation as a talented performer was well known to her. Lucienne, not the sort to be coy, was soon prevailed upon to play for them.

She chose a sonata by Haydn which had to be played con brio. Con brio was the style Lucienne loved best, and she executed the charming, lively piece with vivacious brilliance. The runs and trills flew under her fingers, and she struck the chords with enough passion to make the old pianoforte vibrate with sound. The audience was enraptured, not only by Lucienne’s musical talent but by her loveliness. At the keyboard, with the glow of a huge branch of candles lighting her face, Lucienne—in a Persian-red velvet gown cut low across the bosom and her dark hair brushed casually back from her forehead, caught at the nape of her neck by an exquisite diamond clip and brought down over her bare shoulder in one thick curl—was ravishing. When her strong fingers had hammered out the last chord, the audience broke into loud, prolonged applause.

Lady Trevellick, who’d been dozing in her chair, awoke with a shudder. She recovered at once and joined in the applause. “My Mabyn plays the pianoforte, too,” she announced as soon as she could be heard. “Come, Mabyn, love, why’nt ’ee set down an’ play a crum? Don’t be timmersome.”

“Yes, do play for us,” the hostess seconded.

Other voices joined in to urge the girl until, with a sweet, self-effacing smile, she rose and went to the instrument.

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