The Waltzing Widow/Smith

Author:Joan Smith [Smith, Joan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Regency Romance
Publisher: Belgrave House
Published: 1991-05-24T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

The next morning at breakfast Lady Sara received her reply from the Wesleys in Hampshire. A smile of triumphant astringency settled on her broad face as she read it.

“What have they to say?” Avedon asked.

“Just as we supposed,” she answered, her bosom swelling with importance. “There was no Captain Percy killed at Ciudad Rodrigo. There was no Percy there as an officer at all. George Wesley knew them all, and there was no one there by that name. He does not even recall any noncommissioned Percy, and if the husband was only an enlisted man, you know, he was nobody.”

Avedon set down his cup with a blank look on his face. “It’s impossible,” he said.

“There was an unmarried chap named Percy from Dorset in the Light Dragoons. He left his sweetheart at home and spoke of her often. George was there; he would know. And anyway, he says nothing about that Percy being killed. She is a liar, as we always suspected. She heard of the Percys somehow— perhaps she is from the area, but she is not at all who she says she is. And I greatly fear, Adrian, that she has got Morton under her spell.” She lifted her brows and nodded her head.

“But she is a lady! So well-spoken and genteel.”

“Genteel? Oh, my dear, you make me laugh out loud to hear you say such a thing. A pretty wench may do as she pleases with you men. Do but recall her having Tony hold her ice while she licked it—so vulgar, I nearly retched. And how well she got on with Mr. Edgar last night. Two limbs from the same tree, I swear. There is a little money there, I grant you. The establishment is well run, and she had on those diamonds. She might be a cit’s daughter, looking for a leg up the social ladder. Or an actress ...” Her voice trailed off as she mentally considered other possibilities.

Avedon listened critically. “I noticed she doesn’t wear a wedding ring,” he said.

“I didn’t notice it! Well, that settles it. A grieving widow would not be in a hurry to remove the pledge of her husband’s love.” She looked at her own ring finger and smiled wanly. “I would not remove mine for worlds. Odd she didn’t think of such an obvious thing as buying herself a gold band.”

“I took another look at her letter applying for the house last night. It says quite definitely her husband is in the Peninsula. We thought the husband was supposed to be alive when she came here,” Avedon said.

“She sat right there, bold as brass, and said, ‘He is with Wellington,’ or some such thing. She definitely indicated he was alive. She only decided to be a widow when she saw Tony, single and rich and ripe for plucking.”

“But why did she come here in the first place, if she planned to pose as a wife and not a widow?” Avedon asked. “She could have had no thought of marrying at the time.

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