The Indian Maiden by Edith Layton Read Free Book Online Page A

thunderstorms are universal.”
    Mr. Rossiter, from where he stood at Lady Mary’s side, smiled approval at this unexceptional answer.
    “The weather then is the same?” the Earl of Methley asked, with one thin dark brow arched high in amazement. “But my dear Miss Hamilton, you were only just telling me how pleased you were with how temperate our blessed isle is in comparison to your homeland.”
    “Ah well,” Faith answered with a sweet smile that took the curse off her words in Lord Greyville’s eyes, if not his ears, “Our summers are hotter and our winters colder, of course, but—”
    “It might just be a matter of latitudes,” Mr. Rossiter put in quickly, “or longitudes, since we come from an area which is, I believe, several degrees both to the south and to the west of here.”
    And as he expanded on this dull theme, several of his listeners began to fidget with their fobs or fans, healthy competition being one thing, geography lessons another. So it was that there was a general murmur of gratification when he was done and the earl said, nodding just as though he might have understood the lecture, though due to its impromptu nature, even its author had not, “Still, how tranquil by comparison it must be for you, this vacation here with us.”
    Before Mr. Rossiter could speak to intercept the comment that was aimed at Miss Hamilton, young Lord Greyville, clearly goaded beyond his limited capacity to endure, interrupted him by saying with patriotic zeal, “Yes, damme, Methley, we all know the Yanks have blizzards in July and heat waves at Christmas and giant toads and whatall monstrosities to contend with every day, Miss Hamilton told us all about those. But it ain’t as though they’re safe as houses here, for we’ve had a war going on around us for donkey’s years, and they have not. We’ve only had Napoleon slathering on our doorstep since forever,” he sneered, “and bless me but I’d rather face a dozen of Miss Hamilton’s wild bears and opposums than the likes of him. So I, for one, think they ought rather to be grateful they were safe at home, by comparison ,” he concluded, shooting a triumphant look to the earl, “until now.”
    “Here, here,” a few other young gentlemen said rousingly, as Lord Greyville, flushed with victory, downed the rataffia he’d only been holding for something to do in one gulp and didn’t even notice to gag when he was done.
    “Really?” Miss Hamilton said sweetly, cutting across Mr. Rossiter’s reply. “How odd that you should think we ought to be grateful, Lord Greyville. For as I recall, and I’ve a shocking memory usually, we were very lately at war. At least,” she went on as Lord Greyville’s face started to become warm as he began to remember what he realized he ought never to have forgotten, even in his annoyance, “ someone burned down our capital city of Washington a few years ago, and I don’t believe it was Napoleon, at least I can’t recall that we ever had anything to fear from him. In fact, as I remember,” she went on inexorably as Mr. Rossiter prayed for the lightning to stop playing about outside and immediately get down to business within the drawing room itself, “it was Napoleon who kindly offered to help us at that time, but only to save our lives, you see, so I don’t believe,” she concluded to an absolute and deafening silence, “that we had, or would have had, much to fear from him here, even if he weren’t marooned on an island halfway to Africa now.”
    * * *
    Well, good, Faith thought after she dismissed her maid and blew out her candles and slipped into bed. Because likely now she’d be able to go home that much sooner. And from the looks upon the faces of everyone this evening, including Will and even her maid, that might be as soon as tomorrow morning, and probably too, she thought, on a rail, all the way out of town. With perhaps, she thought, lying absolutely still and staring into the darkness, a little bit