Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 94964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Lady Janice gave a derisive snort. “You’ll never get rid of me,” she said dramatically.
* * *
Arthur laughed. “Have you something against the Season?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
* * *
Lady Emily gave him a look. “It’s such a marketplace. Everybody is looking for the best arrangement. Our girl here is more romantic than that. She reads Byron you know.”
* * *
“Emily!” Lady Janice squeaked, her cheeks flushing becomingly.
* * *
“Well, it’s true!” Lady Emily declared defensively.
* * *
“Yes, but His Grace doesn’t need to know that.”
* * *
“Many times, a love match has been made during the Season,” Arthur interjected, not only to stop their argument but because he wanted to hear what Lady Janice had to say to that.
* * *
“Yes, but that is luck more than intention is it not? And of those who make love matches, how many actually do end up married? I would say it was a very small percentage.”
* * *
“Perhaps you’re right.”
* * *
“I am.”
* * *
“Well, that need not mean that you will fail to make a love match and marry. Have faith.”
* * *
Her cheeks still burned. “I have no interest in that at the moment,” she mumbled, lashes coming down to hide her eyes from him. He did not even know why he was goading her. He had no interest in her finding a love match either.
* * *
“Well at the very least, you shall attend a few balls and have a good time within the Beau Monde.”
* * *
She made a face. “Indeed,” she replied drily. Arthur had the feeling she was just about as enamored of the Ton as he was, meaning, not at all.
* * *
“Or you could stay here with your sisters.”
* * *
“Oh, but if she did that, she would be stopping her younger sisters as well from finding matches,” Rhys, the friend, spoke up. Arthur looked at him in surprise. He’d quite forgotten the man was there.
* * *
“You’re quite right.” He had to cede, if grudgingly.
* * *
“It’s a silly tradition really. That the elder must marry first,” Lady Emily said.
* * *
“Yes, well there’s little we can do to change it,” Lord Benjamin replied reprovingly. He got to his feet. “I see that everyone has finished their meal. Perhaps we can adjourn to the music room for a digestif. Emily can play us a tune, and Anne will accompany her in song.
* * *
The girls offered no protest and so they all stood up, filing out in twos. Arthur found himself once again, escorting Janice. There was a scent to her that he liked very much. In fact, he was sorely tempted to lean down and breathe her in.
* * *
“What is that perfume you are wearing?” he asked softly.
* * *
She flashed him a surprised glance. “I am not wearing any fragrance.”
* * *
“Oh? Are you saying that your scent is naturally alluring?”
* * *
She gave him a small side smile. “Must be.”
* * *
He tightened his hold on her arm. “How interesting.”
* * *
She led him to the music room, and he opened the door for her before gesturing for her to enter before him. She glided forward and took a seat on the bench, making space very deliberately for him to sit beside her.
* * *
He kept his eyes on her and she smiled as she noticed. “What is so fascinating about me that you keep staring?”
* * *
His brow furrowed. “That is what I am seeking to discover.”
* * *
“Well, be sure to tell me when you do.”
* * *
He bowed. “I will.”
* * *
“Now, will you pay attention to my sisters as they play the piano?”
* * *
Arthur turned his head and focused on the pair at the pianoforte. He did not even know why he was making cow eyes at Lady Janice. Nothing could come of it after all. It was simply a waste of time.
CHAPTER 5
Arthur wasn’t sure what it was that finally drove his mother round the bend but when he was eleven, his father had her carted off to bedlam with all the subtlety of putting an old horse out to pasture. Percy Weasley was quite renowned amongst the Beau Monde as a savvy nobleman that not only managed to maintain but also to add to his family’s legacy. The Weasleys were known to be the largest collectors of Diamonds and Pearls in England and Percy’s collection was quite extensive.
* * *
He was quite fond of holding exhibits once a year, to put his collection on display, his doting wife by his side. It would happen that the night before he’d beaten Arthur so hard, he’d broken his left hand in two places and then left him alone in the cold basement all night.
* * *
By the time she found him in the morning, he was raging with fever and seeing things that weren’t there. The sawbones his mother called to see to him wanted to cut off his arm, but his mother wouldn’t let him.