The Promissory Note: A Tapestry of Love Romance by Rebecca Ward

Author:Rebecca Ward [Ward, Rebecca]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2014-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Dracourt looked startled for a moment, but he rallied almost immediately. “Supposing I told you that Ned has had me practicing to speak like a park-saunterer?”

“Fustian!”

He gave a deep sigh. “You are a hard woman.”

“For some time I have suspected that you were hoaxing us.”

“Nay!” he exclaimed so ingenuously that she could not hold back a chuckle. Then, shaking his head, he offered her his arm. “I must apologize for all the furniture I upset. And the flower vases, too. It made extra work for you, I realize. I must find some way of repaying you.”

“You already have repaid us! Only think of chopping wood for Angus, and carrying coal scuttles upstairs. To say nothing of bringing in pails of water for Cook. She told me this morning—”

“That doesn’t signify,” he interrupted rather hastily. “I owe you an explanation as to why I have been acting the part of the country clown.”

“Kedwell’s letter, wasn’t it?”

“That confounded letter!” He looked quite grim suddenly. “Damn my father and his ridiculous notions of friendship.”

“Is there no way of getting clear of it?” she asked anxiously.

“None that I know of. Your mother wrote out a copy of the letter and sent it to me in Yorkshire. I showed it to my solicitor.”

“And he said?”

“That I was in the basket,” Dracourt said bluntly.

Rosalys hesitated, then asked, “I collect, then, that you don’t have a tendre for my sister?”

“You might as well ask her that.”

“Poor Daffy—you have her in a quake. She truly wishes you in Jericho.” Rosalys added thoughtfully, “No, of course you would not suit. That is why you chose to try and get Mama to cry off.”

“Aye, I did an’ all.”

“You did it very well. You convinced everyone, even the servants, though they like you very well in spite of your rustic manners.”

“But I did not convince you?”

“You said it yourself; you cannot make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse,” she said.

His eyes kindled but he only asked soberly,

“How sits the wind with Lady Larrimer?”

“Unfortunately, Mama is holding to her guns.”

“There is no hope she’ll give it up?”

“Mama is a proud woman,” Rosalys began, “and she was truly horrified when you arrived. You made such a cake of yourself that I believe that if Lord Edward hadn’t come when he did, she might have torn up Kedwell’s letter. But when she saw that your friend so obviously admired you, she took heart that he could—well, make you acceptable.”

“Poor Ned,” Dracourt said ruefully. “When he saw me tripping over chairs, and falling over my own feet, he was certain I’d turned Bedlamite. There was no way I could explain—then.” He saw Rosalys’s expression and added gently, “I had to tell him, you know.”

She withdrew her hand from his arm and turned away. “What he must think of us!”

Dracourt took her hands in his and drew her around to face him. “Ned would never betray a confidence, lass.”

“Even so—and pray do not,” she cried, “call me ‘lass.’ It is quite improper as

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.