Free A Sister's Secret by Mary Jane Staples Page B

with you. She is quite in favour, and wishes a picnic hamper to be taken.’
    ‘Excellent,’ said the captain, ‘but you should come too, of course.’
    ‘I’ve no desire to.’
    ‘But, d’you see, marm, it won’t do for you to throw me at her. She’ll guess what you’re at. Young ladies suffering infatuation don’t take kindly to obvious attempts to cure ’em. It’s preferable for all three of us to go on the outing.’
    Caroline frowned. ‘Yes, I see,’ she said. ‘Very well. In a day or so.’
    ‘Your servant, marm. May I say goodnight?’ He bowed, but she refrained from giving him her hand. She watched him depart for his bed, and as the door closed behind him she wondered if Annabelle might not eventually be in as much danger from him as from Cumberland. In his way, he was, after all, as much of a villain as the duke.

Chapter Six
    The handsome brown carriage ran smoothly, the pair trotting, Captain Burnside at the reins. Annabelle was perched beside him, her parasol not only protecting her from the July sun but adding the decorative touch that so complemented a lady’s outdoor look. Annabelle had expressed a wish for a ride to the park on this fine day, and that had given Caroline the opportunity to arrange for Captain Burnside to escort her and drive her.
    Annabelle, having developed a liking for the extremely personable captain, was happy to have his company, and to talk to him. He was a most agreeable listener. After some harmless sociable discourse, she came casually to that which was so often on her mind. ‘Captain Burnside, do you think the Duke of Cumberland an impressive man?’
    ‘Impressive?’ said the captain. ‘Cumberland, I dare say, can be accounted a magnificent prince.’
    ‘Oh, I do declare you all of sympathetic,’ enthused Annabelle, parasol casting light shade over her prettiness. ‘So many people say the unkindest things about him, and even about his looks. But his scar is an honourableone, and gives him, I vow, the mark of a brave soldier. In uniform, he is truly magnificent.’
    ‘A martial lion, Miss Howard.’
    ‘Please call me Annabelle. It’s a pleasure to know you and Caroline are old friends, and that I may consider you my newest friend.’
    ‘One could say the pleasure is pre-eminently mine,’ said the debonair captain, wheedling the glossy chestnuts into an adroit passing of a lumbering stagecoach. ‘I’ve always been an admirer of your sister, and have already come to the conclusion that you’re a sweet young lady.’
    ‘Oh, you all are so gallant,’ said Annabelle, and smiled at a lady who fluttered a hand at her from a passing carriage. ‘There, that was Lady Russell, a very dear friend to Caroline, and much devoted to her husband, Sir George Russell, who is like you in being charitably disposed towards the Duke of Cumberland. The duke rendered him much help and kindness when he broke his leg at a country house party many months ago. How I wish …’ She sighed to a halt.
    ‘Come,’ said the captain warmly, ‘confide in me, dear girl. I’ve noticed your tendency to sigh at times. Count me a true friend. The reverence in which I hold your sister inclines me to lend you a sympathetic ear.’
    ‘Reverence?’ Annabelle laughed softly. ‘Reverence, Captain Burnside?’
    ‘Well, she comes close to being a goddess,’ said the captain.
    ‘A goddess? Caroline?’ Annabelle laughed again. ‘She is surely handsome of figure, but a
goddess
?’
    ‘Olympian,’ said the captain, gentling the pair through the rough and tumble of traffic.
    ‘Sir, you stand in awe of Caroline?’
    ‘While you stand in admiration of Cumberland?’
    ‘Truly, he is the most exciting man in England, and I cannot think why your goddess, my sister, should regard him so uncharitably.’ Annabelle sighed again, and the carriage sighed with her as it sedately approached the park. ‘I confess to an affection for him.’
    ‘Which he returns, I don’t doubt,’ said Captain