Magical Masquerade: A Regency Masquerade by Hilary Gilman Read Free Book Online Page B

wish to retire to rest after
your adventures, and I shall have left for London by the time you are awake.’
    ‘Oh? You are leaving? I did not know.’
    ‘I have already stayed longer than I originally
intended. I have engagements in Town that I must not neglect.’
    Fleetingly, she wondered if one of those
engagements would be with Lady Ashbury and was quite shocked by the stab of
jealousy that pierced her at the notion.
    He strolled forward to open the wide double doors
for her, waving aside the wooden-faced footman. He took her hand and bowed over
it as though to a mere acquaintance and just brushed his lips against her hand.
‘I hope you will continue to find the countryside refreshing. If, however, you
should begin to find it dull, recollect I shall be sending my little sister to
relieve your solitude.’
    She smiled with great sweetness. ‘I shall look
forward to having her with me.’
    ‘Do you know, I believe you will,’ he answered. ‘You
are really most—er—unexpected.’

 
 
 
 
 
     

 
 
 
Seven

 
    It was just a week later that a travelling carriage drawn by four handsome
chestnuts clattered into the courtyard and halted outside the massive doorway.
There had been a heavy fall of snow the previous night, and the Castle now appeared
like some enchanter’s stronghold, the towers and gables heavy with snow that
gleamed in the cold sunshine and bathed the whole courtyard in reflected light.
It produced an eerie and slightly sinister effect.
    However, mystery was banished when the steps were
let down and a girl jumped impatiently from the top step and ran into the house,
almost colliding with Minette, who had hurried downstairs to meet her,
delighted to be relieved of her solitude. She had lost even the dubious
distraction of Wilkinson’s presence when that gentleman’s daughter had arrived
and whisked him away to her London home in the Duke’s well-sprung carriage. The
days that followed had been dreary beyond belief, and only anticipating the
arrival of Rochford’s little sister had enabled her to support her spirits.
    Minette’s first thought was that Arabella did not
resemble her brother in the slightest. She was short and rather plump, with
shining nut-brown hair, hazel eyes, and a high, rosy colour in her cheeks. She
was inappropriately attired in a dashing pelisse of clove-pink taffeta, much embellished
with cords and epaulettes. Her matching high-crowned quilted bonnet sported
several nodding ostrich plumes and was tied under her ear with a large satin
bow. How she had prevailed upon her protectors to permit her to venture forth
in an ensemble more suited to a bird of
paradise than a schoolroom miss, Minette could not imagine. It was soon
explained, however.
    Having divested herself of her pelisse and bonnet,
Arabella allowed Minette to usher her into the morning room, where a fire had
been blazing for hours, making the room cosy enough for Arabella to feel no
chill, even though she was wearing a low-cut gown of diaphanous muslin, even
more unsuitable than the pelisse. ‘How do you like my rig?’ she demanded,
seeing Minette’s wondering eye taking in all the gown’s beauties. ‘Something
like, ain’t it? Old Priddy, that’s our headmistress, you know, would have a fit,
for she sent me off in the carriage in the drabbest old coat and close bonnet.
But I had arranged with Madame Marlot to have my outfit waiting for me in her
shop, and I instructed John Coachman to stop and hopped out and was all changed
within ten minutes, I’m sure. And the other gowns I had purchased were all
corded up in a trunk ready, and it was loaded and we were away. I shall burn
all my old gowns, for I don’t intend to wear any of them ever again, and I am
perfectly certain my abigail will not want them, so
dowdy as they are!’
    Minette swallowed. ‘Are all your new gowns like
this one?’
    ‘Yes, isn’t it beautiful?’
    ‘Indeed, it is. But I am afraid you will take cold.
I could lend