Belinda Goes to Bath by M. C. Beaton Read Free Book Online Page A

and Lady Jordan maintain an icy silence.’
    He had promised not to be offended, but he found he was becoming very angry with her indeed. ‘In that case,’ he said coldly, ‘I suggest you turn your attention to Mr Judd on your other side and I shall devote myself to Miss Pym.
    As he turned away, he heard Belinda mutter, ‘I should have known you would be angry.’
    The soup had been removed and fried whitebait was being served.
    Hannah’s sharp ears had heard most of the interchange between the marquess and Belinda. She feltimpatient with that young lady. If that was how she had gone on during her Season, then no wonder she had not found any suitable beaux.
    ‘Are you a friend of Miss Earle?’ She realised the marquess was asking her.
    ‘I am now, my lord,’ said Hannah. ‘But it is a friendship of very short duration, having only started when I joined the coach.’
    ‘I understand that you like to travel, Miss Pym?’
    ‘Oh, so very much,’ said Hannah. ‘It is an excellent way of meeting people.’
    ‘Odso! I was given to understand that although a variety of classes travel together on the stage, they hardly ever exchange a common civility.’
    ‘True,’ agreed Hannah. ‘But this is such an adventure.’ Her large strange eyes, which changed colour according to her mood, glowed green with excitement.
    ‘But wading through an icy river in winter is most people’s idea of hell rather than a gay adventure, Miss Pym.’
    ‘I am very tough,’ said Hannah. ‘I only hope the same can be said for poor Miss Wimple, and Mrs Judd is not at all strong in spirit.’
    ‘Have you always travelled?’
    ‘Oh, no, my lord. I always dreamt of it, but it did not become possible until this year, when I received a legacy from a relative. I plan to go the length and breadth of England. This is a wonderful castle. I thought such piles as this would have fallen into ruins.’
    ‘It amuses me to maintain it in its original splendour, on the outside at least,’ said the marquess. ‘I donot think I should find stone-flagged floors covered with rushes inside at all comfortable. But you do not take wine, Miss Pym.’
    ‘Although I have a great deal of stamina,’ said Hannah, ‘I fear, after the exhaustion caused by the recent accident, that wine would go straight to my head. The negus before supper was enough, I thank you.’
    The marquess glanced across Hannah to where Belinda was making an obvious effort to put Mr Judd at his ease. Mr Judd, it appeared, was a music teacher at a ladies’ seminary in Bath. Belinda was saying teasingly that he must break the hearts of all his young ladies, and Mr Judd was growing visibly more expansive and swell-headed. For a young lady who claimed she did not know how to flirt, she was doing very well, reflected the marquess. He was aware that the Jordans were sitting in icy silence and felt impatient with them. He would expect, in any wife he chose, the same ease of manner with his tenants as with his peers. But the candle-light played softly on the whiteness of Penelope’s arms and on the glossy tresses of her hair and instead of blaming her for her cold behaviour, he felt obscurely it was all this Miss Earle’s fault. He could not, for example, possibly contemplate marriage to any female as farouche as Miss Earle. One would never know what to expect from her from one moment to the next. And on that thought followed another, treacherous one: that it was very boring to know exactly what anyone would say and do from one moment to the other.
    ‘I heard Miss Earle tell you she is being sent to Bath because she did not “take” at her last Season,’ said Hannah. ‘I find that most strange. She is a great heiress and has an openness and liveliness of mind I find enchanting.’
    ‘I did not think great heiresses ever remained unwed,’ said the marquess.
    ‘Miss Earle had several offers, but her aunt and uncle, who strike me as rather pushing sorts of people, were hanging out for a