Lady Linford's Return by Anne Ashley

Author:Anne Ashley [Ashley, Anne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780373303205
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
Published: 1996-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“Rachel took one final look at the formal dining-room, her eagle eye searching for any slight fault, but everything looked perfect. And so it should, she reflected, considering how hard she had worked to ensure that the evening would turn out to be a success. And with precious little help from the Viscount, either!

Apart from insisting that the Halhams and Fitzwilliams were invited, he had taken so little interest in the proceedings that Rachel had long since come to the conclusion that he had not been so very enthusiastic over holding a dinner-party in the first place.

The suggestion, probably, had stemmed only from rampant curiosity to see how she would match up to his ideal of a perfect hostess. Well, a temporary Viscountess she might be, but she was determined she would not be found lacking in that department!

Linford might have been of precious little assistance, but Peplow and Mrs. Litton could not have done more to help. Nothing had been too much trouble for either of them. They had carried out her orders with such smiling enthusiasm that Rachel suspected they wished the evening to be as big a success as she did herself.-Why, even that morning, Mrs. Litton had spent over an hour with her, pondering over the seating arrangements.

Rachel had wanted both Lucy and Harry, who would be returning shortly to Oxford, to attend, but felt that she could not possibly have invited them without extending the invitation to include their parents. Like Linford, she found Colonel Maitland, whom she had by this time met on several occasions, a very pleasant, easy going gentleman, but her opinion of his wife had not changed very much, although she was careful not to show her true feelings in front of Lucy.

Inviting the family had made the seating arrangements difficult. Linford had stated flatly that he would not have that ‘insufferable woman’ placed anywhere near him at the dining-table, and as Lucy was never completely at ease whenever her mother was near, the task had been no easy one, but she believed, as she glanced at the name cards, that they had the placings just about right.

“Yes, Peplow, everything looks very fine.” She cast him one of her lovely smiles, which had made him her devoted slave almost from the moment she had returned to the Hall. “I don’t know how you managed to get Simpkins to part with so many of his prized blooms, but well done. The flower arrangements look lovely.”

“I believe, my lady, that all his lordship’s people know what is expected of them on occasions such as these.”

Rachel smiled over this as she made her way up to her rooms. Linford’s servants certainly did know what was expected of them, not only on just such an occasion, but at all times.-There wasn’t one of them, either in the house, or working on the estate, who wasn’t devoted to his master. Linford was well respected by all, seemingly; and she had to own that that respect was not misplaced.

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