Free Lois Menzel by Ruled by Passion

Anne stayed in the schoolroom planning Belinda’s lessons. She went often to the library, a room seldom visited by Lord Tenbury’s guests. There she would read or write letters to her old housekeeper, Mrs. Nesbitt, or her cousins’ governess, Ruth Marsh. Lady Tenbury sometimes joined her, and they passed pleasant hours together, reading and talking. Anne ate her evening meal with the children and was usually in bed before ten o’clock, while the guests below were still at dinner.
    Anne found great pleasure in her new gowns. She had never given much thought before to how she appeared to others, but when Belinda admired her gown, or Jack commented that a color became her, she flushed with pleasure. Looking at her reflection in a pier glass, she tried to remember how she had appeared only a few weeks ago. She had gained some weight, and there was a rosy glow to her cheeks. Now that she no longer scraped her hair back so severely, her face appeared fuller and she looked younger, she thought.
    Her new-found pleasure tarnished somewhat in the shadow of the fine ladies invited to Arelia’s house party. Against their costly gowns in brilliant colors, adorned with ribbons and lace, hemmed with rows of ornate flounces, her simple gowns paled. With their elegant coiffures, their wrists dripping diamonds, the fragrance of expensive Parisian scent following them lightly on the air, these women belonged to a different world. When Anne passed them on the stairs or in the hall, some greeted her and most smiled; several ignored her completely. Anne knew now that Mrs. Saunders had not been extravagant in dressing her. The dresses Anne had thought far too grand were perfectly suited to her position as governess.
    Early one afternoon, returning from a walk in the home wood, Anne encountered Arelia leaving the Castle on her way to the stables. She wore a dark blue habit trimmed in black braid; a bright blue feather from her hat curled charmingly against her shoulder.
    “Dear Miss Waverly!” she exclaimed. “I declare I have not set eyes on you for a week.”
    “You have been busy with your guests, ma’am.”
    “Busy? Run off my feet, more like. This type of gathering invariably wears the hostess to a thread. It almost makes one come to dread the summer.”
    “If you dread it so, why do you do it year after year?” Anne asked practically.
    “Why? The answer is there.” Arelia gazed off across the lawn to where Tenbury strolled along an ornamental water with Lady Mason on his arm. The dark-haired widow wore a pale peach gown that contoured her body like a glove. A delicate parasol of the same color shielded her complexion from the harsh sunlight. Tenbury, however, seemed not to mind the sun, for he was bare-headed, his golden hair catching the light as he bent his head to smile at the lady.
    “Look at him,” Arelia continued. “He is so handsome—so much like Henry ...” She paused, but before Anne could reply spoke again. “He has much to offer a woman. He should marry. What he is waiting for I cannot imagine; he will be thirty-five in the autumn.”
    “Perhaps he had rather not be wed. Not all marriages are happy,” Anne offered.
    “True. Yet he has a responsibility. He needs an heir.”
    “But surely Tom—”
    Arelia shook her head, interrupting Anne in mid sentence. “No. This is not what I expect for Thomas. Henry and I had property in Kent. It is there for Tom when he needs it.” She looked past Tenbury and his companion to the expanse of park and forest beyond. “All this should go to Tenbury’s son. It has been that way for generations, and that is the way it should be ... Dear me. I must go. Lord Wilmington is waiting.”
    As Arelia bid farewell and hurried off, Anne turned and entered the Castle, making her way to the library. Lady Tenbury was there. Anne greeted her and moved directly to the shelves, searching for a specific book.
    “Will you read to me today?” her ladyship asked.
    “Certainly, my lady.