Holiday in Bath by Laura Matthews Read Free Book Online Page B

ready. I’d advise taking something easy at first.”
    She chose a low wall with secure ground on either side and set the mare to it. Never had it been so easy to maintain her seat, to feel at one with her horse. Her face was alight with enthusiasm when she returned to Cranford. “It’s perfect. Almost as simple as riding astride, and I don’t miss the knee rest, either. How can I thank you?”
    “You have, Trelenny. I’m glad you’re pleased with it.” As they rode on toward the cataracts which coursed down the rocks and flowed into the small lake by Lady Wood, he watched her covertly. She made no attempt to reinitiate the conversation she had started before they reached the stables and his curiosity grew. “You were telling me of your plans to go away for a spell with your mother.”
    She flushed slightly. “Oh, no, well, I had thought of it, but it’s not possible.”
    “But your Cousin Filkins would be here to stay with your father.”
    “I don’t suppose Mama would really want to go when we have a guest, though I have always felt she disliked Cousin Filkins as much as I do.”
    “Then perhaps she would go. Is there some other problem?”
    Trelenny’s flush deepened. “Doubtless there are a dozen problems I have not even thought of. It was silly of me to mention the matter.”
    “If I hadn’t worked on the saddle you would have told me. You are under no obligation to me, Trelenny. I appreciated the challenge.”
    “I was going to ask you to escort us to Bath,” Trelenny confessed, idly toying with her reins. “Mama’s friend Mrs. Waplington is there, and Mama could not have the same objections as she does to London. I know Bath is not so fashionable these days, but still there are assemblies and shops and the theatre and concerts. There were Roman baths there, you know. They called it Aquae Sulis and some years ago they found a gilded bronze head of Minerva. I read everything I could find on it, so that I could persuade you that you would be interested in going there.”
    “Persuade me,” he urged, a smile playing about his lips.
    “I know it was wrong of me to try to use you that way, but, oh Cranford, I want so much to go somewhere. You have never been restricted to one spot so I suppose you cannot understand. It’s not that I don’t love Sutton Hall and my parents, but I want to see what else there is. I want to meet some people of my own age and do the things other girls do.”
    “Not every girl gets out of the country.”
    “I know. You must think me very selfish to have such a desire, in my situation. Well, I am selfish. I don’t think I’m mean-selfish, or inconsiderate-selfish or stomp-on-everyone-in-the-way-selfish, but I am selfish all the same. If I want something, then I try to get it. I want to go somewhere, and if I can’t go to London, then I want to go to Bath. But I will not try to convince you to escort us because—well, because you have been very thoughtful, and, and that would be stomp-on-someone-selfish."
    “Not if I wanted to go there.”
    “Yes, it would, because even if you wanted to go there you would not want the responsibility of looking out for Mama and me.”
    “I see. Let’s leave the horses here. I’d like to see if there are fish in the lake.” He came around to assist her to the ground and they walked to the small lake. As he skimmed a pebble across the water he asked, “What did you learn about Bath to convince me to take you?”
    “They found the Minerva head in Stall Street in 1727 when they were digging a sewer. When the Duke of Kingston was building a new commercial bath in 1755 they found the remains of a large Roman bathing establishment. In 1790 they found sculptured stones from the temple pediment. Several monuments were found in Northgate in 1803.”
    He regarded her with astonishment as she mechanically rattled off the statistics she had committed to memory. “Good Lord! You must have been very determined, to go to so much