Courting Lord Dorney by Sally James Read Free Book Online Page B

time. Do you think some dogs are more likely to have accidents than others?’
    ‘I don’t know, and you’re changing the subject. What are you going to do with this one?’ Jane demanded severely.
    ‘Jane, wouldn’t you really like a dog to take for walks?’ Bella asked wistfully. ‘He’d be company for you, and he’d love it in the country.’
    ‘No, I don’t need more company, so one of the qualities you’d better insist on for your future husband is a boundless love of stray animals!’
    ‘Mr Richard Yates got on with him very well, he seemed to know exactly what to do to make the dog trust him. We can’t keep calling him the dog. He’ll have to have a name.’
    ‘Ask Mr Yates for suggestions. Go and change out of that filthy gown then come and look at these fashion plates. We must choose some more patterns ready for the dressmaker. She’s coming this afternoon. Do you think this riding habit with the epaulettes and the tall hat looks too military? And do you like the braiding on the bodice of this walking dress?’
     

Chapter 4
     
    They spent the rest of the day discussing the latest fashions, arranging with the dressmaker which gowns she would make first, settling into the house, and before dinner strolling with the dog round Sydney Gardens. Bella looked eagerly about her in the hope of seeing her cavalier, but the only men in the Gardens were elderly, infirm, or in obvious attendance on other young ladies. Later she retired to bed, weaving secret, hopeful plans, for despite her reluctance to admit it to Jane she had found him amazingly attractive. Could she, plain, plump, dumpy Bella Trahearne, ever hope to attach such a man? She vowed to herself to do all in her power towards that aim.
    On the following morning she urged Jane out early, despite the latter’s protests that a fashionable man would be unlikely to stir at such an impossible hour. To Bella’s chagrin Jane was proved right, and the only inhabitants of the Pump Room were elderly invalids and their companions.
    ‘Well, I’m going to try the water after all,’ Bella declared after gazing round the elegant room. ‘It’s silly to come here and not.’ She walked across to the fountain where the attendant supplied her with a glass of the warm liquid. Jane decided she might as well have some too, and they sipped cautiously, concluding it was not too disagreeable.
    ‘I didn’t taste the Harrogate water, but I’m told it’s horrid,’ Bella said over her shoulder to Jane as she handed back her glass.
    ‘Did you like anything at all about Harrogate?’ Jane asked, laughing.
    ‘No, I don’t think so.’ Bella chuckled. ‘Perhaps it’s an omen if I like Bath. But what shall we do now? Do we have to sit here all morning?’
    ‘We could go and visit the Abbey. Or do some shopping. Or - no. I’ve just seen one of my aunt’s old friends. I met her when my aunt brought me just before my come out. She lives here and knows everyone. I don’t think she’s seen me yet but let’s go and introduce ourselves.’
    ‘Will she know Philip doesn’t have a cousin called Isabella?’ Bella asked, catching Jane’s arm as a sudden surge of panic gripped her, and she realized for the first time what disastrous consequences could result from her masquerade.
    ‘No, she probably doesn’t even know I’m married, for my aunt died the year after we came here and I don’t think anyone else in the family knew her.’
    Although slightly puzzled at first, Mrs Eversley soon recalled Jane. After voluble commiserations on the death of her aunt, exclamations and questions about Jane’s marriage, and some embarrassing hints and comments about her lack of children, she ordered her to talk to her hitherto silent companion and turned to an unusually subdued Bella.
    ‘Are you connected to the Bedfordshire Collins?’ she demanded.
    Bella gulped. ‘No, I don’t think so. Philip comes - and so does my family, of course, from Lancashire. But I don’t really