Regency Romance Collection From Christina Courtenay by Christina Courtenay Read Free Book Online Page B

so it might be irrelevant. And he had caused enough scandal himself and therefore would not worry unduly about one more.
                 
    Amelia had ordered some afternoon tea to be served in the private sitting room and James returned just in time to join her.
    ‘I hope you don’t mind?’ she asked. ‘ I felt in need of some refreshment.’
    ‘Not at all, good idea.’ James accepted a cup from her and sat down. ‘I have arranged for you to receive a monthly allowance so you can buy whatever you need. Although I will of course pay for any larger purchases.’ He handed her a small purse. ‘This is the first instalment. My lawyer will arrange for you to have an account at Coutts from now on, which you can draw upon.’
    ‘ Oh, thank you, that is very generous.’ Amelia almost felt guilty for accepting. She didn’t feel she had done anything to deserve this as yet, although that was not entirely her fault, she reasoned.
    ‘It is nothing. I am not a poor man and I would not have it said that I was ever stingy towards my wife.’
    James further surprised her by suggesting a visit to the opera that evening, in order to pass the time. Amelia accepted with alacrity, as she had a passion for the opera and indeed had an excellent singing voice herself. Her father had often bemoaned the fact that she could not show off her own talent at the Theatre Royal in Covent Garden, but instead he had made her give private recitals to their friends, which were much sought after.
    ‘You don’t think there is any chance of meeting Bernard, though?’ she asked, remembering that London was where he r cousin spent most of his time.
    ‘No, no need to worry on that score. I sent someone round to his lodgings to ascertain his whereabouts and was told he is out of town. He must still be rusticating in Bath.’
    ‘Thank goodness for that then.’ She was grateful for James’s foresight in finding this out.
    That evening, d ressed in her new ice blue evening gown, Amelia sat down with barely concealed excitement in the box James had procured and prepared to enjoy herself. She glanced at her handsome husband from time to time, and despite the fact that no one openly acknowledged them, there were many people who stared at them from behind their fans or studied them covertly. Amelia pretended as if they didn’t exist.
    ‘ You don’t mind the old biddies staring down their noses at you?’ James whispered.
    ‘Not at all. I told you I wouldn’t mind being ostracised, and I meant it. Those people are nothing to me.’
    ‘ That’s the spirit,’ he said with the first approving smile she’d seen since Gretna. It made her feel quite warm inside, but she told herself not to be so silly.
    During the first pause they were promenading together in the corridor, amicably discussing the performance so far, when to their surprise a distinguished military man in his early thirties, with a rakish mane of russet hair and a dashing moustache, stopped in front of them and hailed Amelia loudly.
    ‘ Miss Ravenscroft, by all that’s holy! I never thought to see you here. What a fortunate coincidence. We have all been wondering what had become of you. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of you since the sad day of your father’s funeral.’
    ‘ Captain Marshall, how nice to see you again,’ Amelia was astonished to meet someone she knew here, since she had lived most of her life in Yorkshire, but she recovered her composure quickly. ‘I am very well, thank you. Permit me to introduce my husband, Lord Demarr. James, this is Captain Marshall, a friend of my late father’s and a member of his regiment.’
    ‘ Delighted, I’m sure,’ James replied, but his expression didn’t match his words, which puzzled Amelia.
    ‘ You must forgive me,’ Captain Marshall said. ‘I had not heard of your marriage. My congratulations to both of you. I do hope you appreciate your wife’s talents as much as the rest of us did, my dear fellow. She’s a capital