Free The Regency by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Page B

But I have been kept busy ever since I left school, learning my father's business and taking care of it. I have had little time for pleasure — too little.'
    ‘That is a great pity,' Mathilde said feelingly.
    ‘ The kindness of your heart makes you feel more sympathy for me than I am accustomed to feel for myself,' he smiled, making her blush a little. 'But standing here, in this pleasant place, and with such pleasant company, I believe you are right, and that it is a pity.’
    She felt the implied compliment too deeply at once to reply; but then, remembering Héloïse's words, that it was a small occasion beside many others she had experienced, she summoned her confidence to say, 'Perhaps now you have begun, you may find it easier to go on.'
    ‘ To go on with what, Miss Nordubois?' he asked. She raised her eyes, and found him looking at her in a way that made her feel breathless and witless.
    ‘ Why — with dancing and — and balls — and so on,' she managed to say.
    He took her hand at the demand of the dance, and she liked the gentle strength of his grasp, and the firm way he supported her.
    ‘ Perhaps it is a little early to ask,' he said, 'but I imagine I may not have another chance if I miss this one: so may I take you down to supper, Miss Nordubois?'
    ‘ Yes, please,' she said simply, and then wondered if she ought to have said 'thank you' instead.

    *
    Lieutenant Hawker was frankly bored. Finucane had been eager to come to this ball because the wealthy Miss Chubb would be here, and he was hoping for the opportunity to advance what seemed to Hawker a very hopeless cause. When the colonel had relayed the request for another officer to Finucane, he had put up Hawker's name without consulting him; and when Hawker had later protested, Finucane had said, 'Oh don't be such a wet blanket, Fitz! There will be a dozen pretty girls there, and a decent supper. What more can you want?'
    ‘ A great deal more,' Hawker had said disagreeably. 'Country girls with thick ankles and red faces, and nothing to drink, I'll wager, but orgeat and lemonade! What the devil did you give Brunton my name for?’
    Finucane laughed. 'Nonsense! York girls are the prettiest in the country, and quite as smart and sophisticated as your London girls. As to drink, you don't know, there might be champagne or anything. And you can take your own flask, can't you? Damnit, Fitz, you've nothing better to do, after all. Why not take the chance of seeing the inside of Morland Place? It's a fine old castle, you know, and the Morlands are one of the oldest families about here.'
    ‘ Stiff and fusty-faced, and full of their own importance, I suppose. Who's the girl?' Hawker asked indifferently.
    ‘ What, Miss Nordubois? Ward of Lady Morland, some kind of cousin-twice-removed, I think. She's French, you know.'
    ‘ So I imagined from the name,' Hawker said with a curl of the lip.
    ‘ No, I mean Lady Morland,' Finucane laughed good-nature dly. 'She's a countess in her own right — Papist, of course — descended from James II, but with a few bends in the line. From what I hear, she's had quite a life! Fled the revolution and — well, there have been some scandals along the way.’
    Hawker's interest was slightly stirred. 'Is she a beauty? Rich?'
    ‘ What, Lady M? Has her own fortune. As to beauty — I couldn't say, never having seen her. Her marriage to Morland was a love-match, so I dare say she is. Why, what's it to you?'
    ‘ A wealthy married woman with a highly-coloured past, and French at that, might just amuse me sufficiently to make it worth going to this dreary ball of yours,' Hawker said. 'God knows, there's nothing else to do in this place! Why did I ever come to the North? Why did I ever leave Brighton?'
    ‘ You know why you left Brighton,' Finucane said disoblig ingly. 'It was because —'
    ‘For God's sake, don't remind me,' Hawker snapped.
    ‘So you'll come to Morland Place with me, then?' Finucane pressed home his advantage.
    ‘I