The Regency by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Read Free Book Online Page A

'that John Skelwith came along. He seems a very good sort of young man, from what Edward says. He was right to ask him to Mathilde's ball. Have you known him long?'
    ‘ I've known of him all his life,' James said shortly, 'but I can't say I know him. He hasn't happened to have come in my way.'
    ‘ I think I had better call on his mother, before I send the invitation. It would be polite. You knew her, I believe?’
    James looked at her sharply. 'What do you mean by that?' Her eyes met his in the glass, and she continued to look at him steadily, serenely; saying nothing, waiting for him to speak. 'Yes,' he said at last. 'I knew his mother. Well, we all did. We grew up together.' He hesitated, and Héloïse smiled.
    ‘ Go on, my James. Tell me the story. And go on brushing my hair, too. It feels so nice.’
    The action, she knew, would help him talk. 'Well,' he began, 'there was Edward's friend, John Anstey, who was in love with my sister Mary, and Tom Loveday, who was Anstey's friend, and his sister Mary Loveday, who was my sister Mary's friend. We were all meeting for ever at balls and parties. Mary Loveday was a few years older than me. She was quiet and clever. I suppose that's why I liked her.’
    He stopped again, and this time Héloïse just waited, know ing that it was coming. 'In fact, Marmoset, I have a confes sion — I more than liked her, I was in love with her. Oh, I was only a green boy then, and I don't suppose she thought me anything but a vague nuisance. But she was kind to me — I think it amused her to have me pursuing her so hard, when the other young women were all after me. It makes me sound like a coxcomb, I know, but so it was.'
    ‘Yes, my love,' she prompted gently. 'What then?’
    James's mouth turned down bitterly. 'The Lovedays weren't well-to-do. They were an old family, and respectable, but the father speculated unwisely, and the long and short of it was that when Mary was twenty, he arranged a marriage for her which was to repair his fortunes. The chosen man was old John Skelwith, a builder, very rich, with enterprises all over Yorkshire. A coming man, you might say. The trouble was, he was thirty years older than she.’
    Héloïse nodded gravely. 'Such marriages are less common now than they were. No doubt her father had her best interests at heart; but I can see how it would appear to you.'
    ‘ Appear to me?' He looked at her over her shoulder, amazed. 'Don't tell me that you would approve of such a match! A girl of twenty and a bow-legged old man of fifty?'
    ‘And you were — how old? Eighteen?'
    ‘Seventeen.’
    Her eyes twinkled. 'Yes, my James, seventeen, and hot- blooded, and handsome, and in love with this Mary Loveday. It must have seemed very bad to you. But she did not refuse the marriage, did she?'
    ‘How could she? I told you it was arranged for her —'
    ‘ Ah yes, so you said. But you know, women are not always so romantic as men. Sometimes they may put practical matters first; and a kind, wealthy, older man may make a very good husband for a woman who is still unwed at twenty.'
    ‘ You know nothing about the case,' James said stiffly. Héloïse reached behind her and put her hand over his. 'Perhaps not. But I know you, my James. You thought she had been forced into the marriage, and wanted to rescue her, like the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche! And perhaps also your pride did not want to believe that she preferred this old man to you for a husband?’
    He put the brush down hard on the dressing-table and tugged his hand free from hers; and then met her amused but sympathetic eyes in the glass, and gave a reluctant half-smile.
    ‘ Well, you may be right. Perhaps I was rather a coxcomb, and there was some hurt pride in the case. But I really loved her, Marmoset — that I do know. She was intelligent and fine, and I hated to see her sold like a horse for the sake of her fool of a father.'
    ‘Well, mon âme, so what did you do?'
    ‘Do?' James looked rather