Free The Paradise Will by Elizabeth Hanbury Page B

remainder of the meal was meagre. After the desserts and sweetmeats, he stayed to take a glass of port while she retired to the drawing-room. When he came in a short time later, Alyssa watched as he conversed easily with Letty and admitted to confusion. It seemed Sir Giles possessed a sense of humour; he had apologized for his curtness in London; he had even expressed surprisingly liberal views on women in business, but he had also acknowledged he could be blunt, and his views on the plight of the labourers were heartless. And what was she to glean, if anything, from those curiously hypnotic moments during dinner?
    After over an hour in his company, when Alyssa had expected her first unfavourable impressions to be confirmed, she had instead discovered Sir Giles Maxton to be an enigma.
     

CHAPTER FIVE

    The following afternoon, Alyssa was checking the linen cupboard with Letty and the housekeeper, when Rowberry announced they had visitors.
    ‘We are not expecting anyone,’ said Alyssa. ‘Who is it?’
    ‘Mrs Nash and Miss Caroline Nash, miss. I asked them to wait in the drawing-room .’
    Letty grimaced. ‘Can we say we are not at home? We are not dressed to receive visitors.’
    ‘I suggested neither you nor Miss Paradise would be able to see them, but Miss Nash would not hear of it.’ Rowberry sniffed, his tone obviously disapproving of Miss Nash’s dictatorial manner.
    ‘Very well, Miss Nash must take us as we are if she arrives at short notice,’ said Alyssa, with a wry glance at her old gown. ‘Come, Letty, our visitors await.’
    ‘But I have a tear in my dress and we look positively shabby!’ she exclaimed.
    ‘What we are wearing cannot signify much – they would surely prefer not to be kept waiting. However, if you prefer, go and change and come when you are ready.’
    ‘No, I think I’ll accompany you after all. I want to see their reaction when we appear in these clothes,’ said Letty, chuckling.
    They followed Rowberry down the stairs and Alyssa, recalling the scrutiny she had been subjected to earlier in the day, was not completely surprised Miss Nash had called.
    Seated in church for morning service, Alyssa had presumed that the young woman near Sir Giles and watching her and Letty intently was the close friend he had spoken of. Caroline Nash was of medium height with a neat, elegant figure and dark hair; her features were attractive, but spoilt by an expression of such haughty severity that Alyssa could well believe Letty’s observation that Miss Nash’s glance could curdle milk. Determined to be friendly, Alyssa acknowledged her with a smile, only to receive another superior glare in response.
    She was prepared for some scrutiny following the strange terms of Uncle Tom’s will, but many of the parishioners knew her from past visits, and those who did not were polite enough to study her from the shelter of convenient hymn books.
    But Miss Nash made no attempt to disguise her critical appraisal. Alyssa endured it with composure, breathing a sigh of relief when she turned to murmur into the ear of the older lady next to her, presumably her mother. Had the inspection continued, Alyssa might have been tempted to react.
    However, when Mrs Nash turned to stare and Alyssa was certain she had been the subject of their whispered conversation, it was too much. She repaid Mrs Nash for her blatant scrutiny with a beatific, simpering smile and fluttered her eyelashes. Unfortunately, Sir Giles chose that moment to glance over his shoulder and caught sight of her exaggerated expression. He raised his brows quizzically and a crimson blush stole into Alyssa’s cheeks; she fervently hoped he did not think she was smiling like a mutton-headed idiot at him! To her relief, she saw his gaze flick to the still-staring Mrs Nash and his lips give an infinitesimal twitch.
    Alyssa would have stayed to speak to him at the end of morning service – he was watching from across the churchyard as the congregation