Loving Lucy by Lynne Connolly Read Free Book Online

always made sure she was accompanied by her precious daughter, so Lucy had become used to the handsome façade, adorned by half a dozen Doric columns. She ascended the shallow steps to the front door with mixed feelings. She had only once been inside since her cousin had inherited, and was nervous as to what she would find within.
    It looked much the same. Only the flowers in the hall were different. The portraits of illustrious ancestors still adorned the staircase; the hard chairs were still ranged around the walls, the table in the centre ready to receive its burden of cards.
    Lady Royston looked around and sniffed. A maid came forward and took their hats, pelisses and gloves, and they were taken upstairs to the main drawing room.
    His lordship was alone, and he came forward to greet them with a polite smile on his lips. Lucy looked around her. He had changed the drawing room. Where pink brocade had predominated there was now pale blue silk; new upholstery on the elegant chairs, new and elaborate drapes at the windows. It was still a handsome room, but more coolly classical than it had been in Lady Royston’s time. Everything looked new, and she smelled the fresh wax on the furniture.
    They sat down and accepted dishes of tea and little cakes with every cordiality. Then, at a small gesture of dismissal, the maids left the room. Lord Royston took a deep breath and sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy. “You forgot to inform me?”
    Lady Royston regarded him coldly. “Just so, sir. It was an oversight, that is all.” She paused and looked away. “It was regrettable.”
    He let silence fall again before he spoke. “I see.” He put down his tea dish. It made a small rattle in the emptiness. “I trust you have checked this man’s suitability to join this family?”
    He looked at Lucy as he spoke, and he thought he could discern the trace of a smile on her face. He hoped so. If this marriage did nothing else, it might give him the opportunity to see more of her. While anything but friendship was out of the question now, he would value that.
    Lady Royston bridled, her shoulders straightening. If she had been less well brought-up she might have snorted. “Suitability. His birth is better than yours, his fortune as good.”
    He looked back at the older lady. “It wasn’t his birth which concerned me. I’m only too aware of the opinion you have of my mother’s side of the family. It was his fortune and his character.” He sat at his ease in one of the blue upholstered chairs, his long legs crossed at the ankles. “You have, I take it, satisfied yourself as to those?”
    “Naturally. I have every awareness of the kind of fortune hunter who has come our way ever since Lucy turned sixteen. I have fobbed off many, and I see no evidence of it in this gentleman. Mr. Chumleigh in the City has investigated his affairs. Sir Geoffrey has been most co-operative, which a gentleman afraid of discovery wouldn’t be.”
    His lordship didn’t speak for a moment. “I’m glad you used Chumleigh. He has a great deal of experience in these matters, does he not?”
    “Yes,” she replied haughtily. “With a girl as well endowed with fortune as Lucy, one cannot be too careful.”
    “I couldn’t agree more.” He looked at Lucy now. She met his gaze coolly, blue stare on blue. That and his dark hair was the only thing he’d inherited from her side of the family. He tried a friendly smile. She smiled back. “Lucy must be properly cared for.” He turned back to Lady Royston. “I cannot have one of my closest relatives in need or married to a wastrel.”
    Nettled, her ladyship replied; “If she chooses to do so it is no concern of yours, sir.”
    “Not if she makes the choice herself. Then we should all have to learn to live with it.” He turned back to Lucy, regarding her with a clear-eyed stare. “Are you happy in this choice of husband?”
    “Oh yes. Most happy.”  
    Philip nodded, unsmiling. He saw more than she