Miss Truelove Beckons (Classic Regency Romances Book 12) by Donna Lea Simpson Read Free Book Online

a boy. He was used to command, and would surely not crumble in the face of feminine determination or wiles.
    Or would he? He would not be the first man to be brought to his knees by feminine beauty or a mother’s manipulation. True could only pray for both his and Arabella’s sake that they made the right choice.

Chapter Four
     
    Drake, remorseful for his fit of pique, determined to behave himself at dinner. He devoted himself to Miss Swinley, his companion at the table, and had her laughing gaily and teasing him with coquettish glances. He found that he could detach himself from the scene and let his true thoughts and feelings run under his external behavior; that helped him behave in a proper manner toward his mother’s guests.
    All the while, though, he kept glancing down the table to where Miss Becket, looking delicate and fragile in a deep gold gown of some glowing material, sat next to the vicar, who had been invited to dinner, too. Probably at the last minute and to balance the table, Drake thought wryly, knowing his mother’s rigid adherence to the proprieties. Reverend Thomas was a fiftyish gentleman, learned and good-tempered. He had been Drake’s first tutor and had instilled in his pupil a love of good literature, along with the required Greek, Latin, and mathematics. He and Miss Becket seemed to have much to talk about, but then the young lady was a vicar’s daughter. It could be no more than that, that had them talking so intimately, with their heads together.
    “I understand your own estate is close by Lea Park, my lord?”
    Drake turned to his dinner companion. “Indeed, that is true, Miss Swinley. I am currently having some renovations done to make it more fit for habitation. It has been empty for some years and neglected terribly. There is much to do, but I am starting where my heart lies, I am afraid, rather than where common sense would dictate. The library is being entirely refitted with oak shelves by a carpenter, a fellow ex-soldier, actually. He was looking—”
    “La, I never go near the library!” Miss Swinley laughed, gaily, laying one bare white hand daringly over his, where it rested on the Irish lace tablecloth. “Mama says that too much reading leads to brain fevers!”
    “You seem not at all at risk of that disease,” Drake said, stifling his impatience.
    That remark earned him a look of reproof from his mother.
    “Were you not thinking of going to Thorne House to check on the progress of your renovation, my dear?” she said.
    “I was,” Drake replied. “I might go tomorrow. It appears that the weather will hold for at least a day or two more, and I want to check in with Stanley before too long; I have some new plans I want him to consider. And I want to see how far he and the other fellows have gotten.”
    “Tomorrow sounds like an ideal day,” Lady Leathorne said. She glanced brightly around the table and said, as if it had just occurred to her, “Why do you young people, the four of you, not make a day of it? Take a picnic lunch and dine there. You could see the estate and still be back before dark. It is not above twenty-five or thirty miles.”
    “I would love that above all things, Lady Leathorne,” Miss Swinley said, her pretty face glowing in the candlelight. She turned to her mother. “May I, Mama?”
    “Certainly, my dear. I long for a comfortable coze with Jessica,” Lady Swinley said, casting a glance at her old friend with a delighted expression on her narrow face. “Just be sure to carry a parasol for your delicate complexion and stay out of the wind.”
    “It is settled then, if Lord Conroy does not object?” Lady Leathorne nodded toward the gentleman in question.
    “I think it a marvelous plan!” he said, with a genial smile on his attractive face.
    Drake’s head whirled. From a comfortable day on his own, riding to and exploring his own estate, it had become a pleasure party for Miss Swinley. And they had included but had not asked Miss Becket!