Joan Smith by The Kissing Bough Read Free Book Online Page A

regimentals tonight. Lady Elizabeth has invited some friends in for dinner. The mummers will be coming later. I want him to wear his uniform.”
    “And I never want to see it again,” Nick insisted.
    “You promised you would have your portrait painted for me in your uniform.”
    “I would like to see you in your uniform,” Jane said. “I should think all the neighbors expect to see you wearing it at least once.”
    “I am no longer an officer. I have resigned my commission,” Nick insisted.
    “Wouldn’t mind seeing it myself,” Pel said. “Mean to say, been hearing of your heroics forever. I’d like to see the shako and gold braid and all. Really ought to wear them once. A kind of a duty, in a way.”
    Aurelia adopted a moue and said, “Please, Nick. For me.”
    “Tell you what,” Pel said. “Wear ‘em to church tomorrow, let the whole town gape at ‘em, then put ‘em away in mothballs. You’ll never hear the end of it until folks get a look at you in the outfit.”
    Nick looked around at the three demanding faces, from Aurelia, to Pelham, to Jane. Then he gave a reluctant tsk and said, “Very well, one last time at church tomorrow, then they go into mothballs.”
    “Until we go to London to have our portraits done,” Aurelia said, and laughed, pleased that she had partially won her way. She could not leave well enough alone, and added, “Since the outfit will be all pressed and ready, perhaps you will wear it for the New Year’s ball, too, to let my family and friends see it.”
    He gave a look of mock intimidation. “There are limits to my patience, my little turtledove. And the New Year’s do is not to be a ball, but an informal rout.”
    Lady Elizabeth and Mrs. Lipton joined them and approved of the idea of Nick wearing the uniform to church for Christmas.
    “Be sure you stop in to show it off to your uncle,” Lady Elizabeth said. “Have you been in to see him today, Nick?”
    “Certainly I have, and will go again. Is he awake now?”
    “Yes, he was asking for you.”
    “Let us go up, then,” he said to Aurelia, and they left.
    “What a dear child she is,” Lady Elizabeth said. Her crocodilian smile coerced them all to agree.
    Jane said to Pelham, “Is that the wedding ceremony you are studying, Pel?”
    “Eh? What would a wedding ceremony be doing in a cookery book? I am looking at the receipt for mulled wine. Port or claret, it says. Which do we use?”
    “We used claret last year.”
    “So we did. It don’t mention the apples. We always have apples floating in the wine. Do you have any apples in the root cellar, Aunt Lizzie?”
    “Of course we have apples. And don’t forget to use the proper tin warmer for the wine. Mulled wine requires its own special pan.”
    Jane studied Pelham as they worked together. She was reluctant to give up the past. If she married Pel, things would continue on much as they always had. True, she didn’t love him, but she liked him very much. He would make a good, thoughtful husband. There was no one she liked better— except Nick, of course, and as he was marrying, why should not she?
    While the preparations for the mulled wine were taking place in the saloon, abovestairs Lord Goderich surveyed the two young strangers who had come into his room. Then he recognized Nick and demanded to know who the young chit with him was.
    “This is Miss Aurelia Townsend, uncle, my fiancée . ”
    “I thought you was marrying that Junoesque redhead that was in here last night. Rob Ramsey’s gel, is she?”
    “Indeed she is, but my fiancée is Miss Aurelia.” He said aside to Aurelia, “Say something to him.”
    Aurelia stepped closer to the frightening old man on the bed, who looked like a bedlamite with his white hair flying about and his wild eyes staring at her. Words stuck in her throat. What on earth did one say to a lunatic lord? In society, she was invariably introduced as the youngest daughter of Edward Townsend, the brewer.
    She curtsied and said