Gypsy Lord by Kat Martin

Author:Kat Martin
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, azw3
Tags: Romance
ISBN: 9781466837690
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Published: 1992-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Chapter 14

« ^ »

”Just stay close to Edmund and me, and everything will be all right.” Gilford Lavenham, Duke of Wentworth, extended a stocky arm, and Catherine rested her golden-gloved hand on the sleeve of his burgundy brocade tailcoat. Beneath it he wore a white silk waistcoat, frilled white shirt and cravat, and perfectly tailored pin-striped burgundy breeches.

“God in heaven, I hope so,” she said, pasting a smile on her face. She was bloody well tired of hearing how right everything would he.

“Whatever happens, just keep smiling,” Amelia put in, brushing a fine piece of lint from her pale blue satin gown as she took Edmund’s arm.

“Gil and I have seen to everything,” Edmund said with confidence, leading the small procession forward. A fine-boned, far thinner man than Gil, Edmund, with his blue eyes, well-defined brows, and patrician features, cut a dashing figure in his bottle-green frock coat and yellow silk breeches.

“Watch your step, Catherine dear.” Gil guided Catherine unerringly up the broad front steps through the carved mahogany doors. Servants in red and gold livery lined the way, and as Catherine stepped into the Great Hall, one of them took her satin-lined cloak.

The magnificence of the duke’s new residence made her draw in a breath. Rising over sixty feet high, the ceiling of the Great Hall arched above towering alabaster columns, the walls had been painted in rococo-style murals of cherubic angels, and she stood upon gold-streaked white marble floors. Statues of Greek and Roman emperors surveyed their domain with fixed stares of arrogance.

Catherine assessed her surroundings with nothing short of awe. Just a few brief months ago, she would have paid little attention. She had been raised to think nothing of such extravagant displays of wealth. Now she couldn’t help comparing the ragged plight of the Gypsies, who lived at the barest level of subsistence, to the absurdity of so much gilded splendor.

Off to the left, the Duke of Mayfield and his thin wife, Anne, were surrounded by the party who had entered ahead of them, but their eldest daughter, Georgina, a tall, lanky girl with wide sea-green eyes and curly strawberry-blond hair saw them and hurried in their direction.

Noting her welcoming smile, several heads followed the tall girl’s movements, their eyes coming to rest on Catherine. There was whispered conversation, Catherine felt Gil’s reassuring grip on her arm, saw Edmund’s studied nonchalance, and Amelia’s look of composure.

“Lady Arondale!” Georgina said. “How good it is to see you.” She clasped Catherine’s cold hand between her warm ones. “Good evening, Your Grace,” she said to Gil, “Lord and Lady Northridge.”

“It’s good to see you, Lady Georgina.” Catherine smiled warmly as greetings were exchanged She had met the girl during her London Season, and finding they shared a passion for books and riding, they soon became friends.

“I hope your journey was not overly tiring,” Georgina said, working hard to ignore the whispers around them. There was a hint of concern in the tall girl’s eyes, but also determination. The Mayfields were making their sympathies clear.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.