Lord Sidley's Last Season by Sherry Lynn Ferguson

Author:Sherry Lynn Ferguson [Ferguson, Sherry Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-11-16T22:16:00+00:00

They were late back from the fair, but a festive dinner awaited them, and Lady Adeline and Lady Formsby, who had not accompanied them on the expedition, wished to hear all about the afternoon’s outing.

Marian noted that the seating arrangements had been carefully altered, such that Katie still sat next to Sidley, but on his left, and Becca Harvey had moved to his right. Delia TinckneyDwight now found her place at the center of the table, and Marian and Clara were shifted that much farther from their host, to the end over which Lady Adeline presided.

Marian liked Lady Adeline. Thus she could not quite understand her discomfort around her hostess, who was such a close friend of her cousin Edith. But there was something a bit too assessing in the older woman’s gaze, something Marian deemed too closely observant and not altogether warm. She suspected that Lady Adeline guessed at her attraction to Lord Sidley.

“So, Miss Ware,” she said now rather abruptly, and speaking across Sir Philip, who sat between them, “would you ever find an event such as the humble Turling fair worthy of a painting?”

“Indeed I would, my lady. Had I thought to take my sketchbook, I suspect I’d have spent less time on purchases”

“Do you never draw from memory?”

“On occasion, certainly, ma’am. But there is something less … immediate, I suppose, about the result. I must make an effort to remember what I’ve seen, and I fear the labor shows”

Lady Adeline’s gaze appeared to soften. “My family has always admired the arts. I myself was very fond of drawing when I was younger.”

“I should like to see some of your drawings.”

But her hostess waved the suggestion aside. “Mere scribbles, I assure you, Miss Ware. Suitable only for prompting those few memories I retain.”

“I will not grant you any deficiency in memory, Lady Adeline,” Sir Philip said gallantly.

“You have no notion, sir, of how many years I am ahead of you! But your flattery is welcome nonetheless.”

As the two bantered, Marian turned to her right, to Mr. Harvey. She had found him to be a very good, forthright sort of man; he reminded her of the earnest shopkeepers and gentlemen farmers at her home in Brinford. Except, of course, that they could not claim to have earned even a fraction of Mr. Harvey’s fortune.

He had been talking about his Becca, of her precocious ability with horses as a youngster and the splash she had created in town that season. His ambition for his daughter was quite as plain as his affection. Now he glanced to the other end of the table.

“You have an artist’s eye, Miss Ware-do you not think they look well together?” he asked.

And Marian was compelled to look toward Sidley, whose dark head was at that moment inclined to catch something Becca Harvey said.

“Yes,” she agreed softly, though in truth she thought any of the young ladies under consideration would look well with Lord Sidley.

Her gaze lingered too long. When Sidley broke his conversation with a smile and glanced down the table, his own gaze fastened on hers.

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