Daphne by MC Beaton Read Free Book Online Page B

best.’
    ‘Thank you. I will now take my leave of yourself and Mrs Armitage.’
    Mr Garfield had the opportunity of meeting the vicar’s two youngest daughters. Diana he considered unfortunately mannish, and little Frederica was a plain, wispy thing. There was no sign of the glorious Daphne. Mrs Armitage extended her hand in a swan-like way and murmured apologies for the lack of hospitality ‘for we are at such sixes and sevens. I declare servants get more difficult to manage each year.’
    Behind her, the maid, Betty, scowled darkly.
    Lady Godolphin extended an invitation to one of her salons and cast a last loving look at his legs.
    And then he was gone.
    ‘Drat!’ exclaimed the vicar. ‘I never got that thousand guineas.’
    ‘I think he only said it to help you escape the bishop,’ pointed out Lady Godolphin.
    ‘I don’t know what came over Daphne,’ went on the vicar. ‘Thank goodness you’re sensible when it comes to animals, Diana.’
    ‘I wouldn’t dream of making such a missish scene,’ said Diana proudly, but inside she felt an ache at her heart. Bellsire and Thunderer had been the clowns of the pack, funny and noisy and always up to mischief. She thought of them under the lash of a strange master and felt her eyes fill with tears.
    ‘Mr Radford has departed,’ said Mrs Armitage. ‘What an exhausting day. Betty, make me a tisane. I must lie down.’
    The vicar was glad Squire Radford had gone home, otherwise he might have been tempted to blurt out Mr Garfield’s interest in Daphne, and Jimmy Radford would look at him severely and accuse him of being mercenary.
    Rubbing his hands, the vicar went into the house. He would write to Mr Garfield as soon as that gentleman’s carriage which had been damaged in the bishop-trap was repaired and perhaps delicately remind him of the money he had promised to give the church.
    Best handle Daphne carefully. Best get her to London soon. Perhaps he might go himself, thought the vicar, and have a word in the ear of this pesky Mr Archer.
    While Daphne cried herself to sleep upstairs, the vicar sat downstairs and planned her wedding to Simon Garfield.

THREE
    Mr Garfield was glad to return to the well-ordered sanity of his friend’s mansion. He had the dogs sent ahead to London where no doubt Mr Apsley, if he could wrench himself away from his latest inamorata , would transfer them to his own kennels in the country.
    He stayed on for two weeks at Hopeminster because he was suffering from headaches and not yet fully recovered from his accident.
    It was the end of August when he at last made his way back to his town house in Albemarle Street. For the first time since his visit to Hopeworth, he remembered he had not honoured his promise of the gift of one thousand guineas to the village church. He sent for his secretary, Harold Evans, and gave him instructions to find some individual capable of organizing the restoration of a church. Mr Garfieldwanted to make sure his money went on the purpose for which it was meant and not straight into the reverend’s pocket.
    There were many invitations waiting for him although the Little Season was not yet begun. He was about to tell his secretary to refuse them all, when he decided to examine them instead. As he expected, there was one from Lady Godolphin inviting him to a dinner. The dinner was to be held that very evening. Probably her ladyship would not expect him to turn up. And yet …
    ‘Send a footman round to Lady Godolphin’s,’ he told Mr Evans, ‘and say I shall be delighted to attend this evening unless she has already found a substitute for me.’
    He carefully went through his correspondence, dealing with business matters, personal letters, and several hundred requests for money.
    Then he ordered all his tradesmen’s bills to be paid promptly – a most ungentlemanly procedure – after which he decided to go out and call on his friend Mr Apsley.
    At the back of his mind, Mr Garfield had some idea he might