A Strange Likeness by Paula Marshall Read Free Book Online Page A

him. ‘Is he Ned’s double, too?’
    â€˜Fortunately not. Begging your pardon, Ned. He is very much like my mother—and her long dead brother Rowland, she says. Except that Thomas is tall and dark while she is little and dark. Had he gone to the theatre no one would have taken him for Ned.’
    Eleanor pursued a point. ‘You said that your sisters were equal in law with you and your brothers. Can that really be true? We women have so many constraints and Mr Dudley, Charles’s tutor, tells me that we have no legal existence at all.’
    â€˜My father had contracts and settlements drawn up for them. One of his sayings is, “In matters of judgement sooner a clever woman than a dull man.”’
    â€˜Is this commonplace in the colony, Mr Dilhorne?’
    â€˜By no means, Lady Stanton. I fear that our women are under even more constraints than they are in England, and are even less regarded. The Patriarch—I mean my father—is, however, very much his own man.’
    â€˜Well, he would be my man,’ said Eleanor decidedly, ‘if he treats women so well.’
    â€˜Eleanor, you forget yourself,’ said Almeria, ever ready to rebuke her great-niece when she showed her old outlaw spirit.
    Alan regarded Ned’s radiant sister with approval. There was obviously much more to her than there was to her charmingly lightweight brother.
    â€˜With respect, Lady Stanton, I think that the Patriarch would admire Miss Hatton greatly.’
    The look Eleanor gave him was glowing. His smilemade her tingle all over in the oddest manner. No man had ever affected her in such a strange way before.
    Throughout the dinner which followed, where Alan knew how to use all the right knives and forks—doubtless his mother’s influence being Almeria’s inward comment—the good impression which he had made on the two women grew with each passing moment.
    By unspoken agreement Alan was quizzed no further until, sitting over their port, the women having retired into the little drawing room, Ned remarked, a trifle roughly for him, ‘Do you always make such a good impression on the ladies, Dilhorne?’
    Alan’s answer was an oblique question. ‘Lady Stanton and Miss Hatton approved of me, then?’
    â€˜You know dam’d well they did.’
    â€˜Excellent. It’s nice to know.’
    The contrast between the two men could not have been more marked. Ned drank heavily of the port, Alan drank little, and by the time they rejoined Almeria and Eleanor in the drawing room Ned’s drawl was already blurred. He was not entirely sure that he liked his women approving so much of his new friend—it took a little of his pleasure in him away.
    Alan, meantime, contented himself with admiring both Miss Hatton and her great-aunt, for entirely different reasons!
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    Eleanor Hatton had to admit that she was fascinated by Ned’s new friend. It was not the likeness which intrigued her, but the differences between them. Not only was Alan so much cleverer than Ned, but she also liked Alan’s easy athletic carriage, which was such a strong contrast to Ned’s slouch.
    For the first time in her short life she found sleep slowin coming. She relived her first meeting with Alan: something which she had never done before. Her great-aunt had said to her after he had left, ‘Mr Dilhorne seems to be a worthy young man, my dear, despite his doubtful origins. We must not condemn a man because of his father’s mistakes.’
    â€˜The Essendene connection must count for something, too,’ Eleanor had said, trying not to sound too eager.
    â€˜If it’s proved,’ Almeria had replied dryly—although she had no real doubts. ‘It’s hard on the Lorings, though.’
    Eleanor agreed. Caroline Loring, a shy, pretty girl, was one of her London friends—although she had told Eleanor nothing about the problem of the Essendene inheritance.