Free A Summer Shame by Elizabeth Ann West Page A

shifting her weight from foot to foot, realizing she appeared horribly wanton and the last thing she wanted was for Lady Matlock to guess her awful sin towards her own son. "I was never as socially intuitive as my elder sisters, and while I did try to put on a brave front for the family, I feel my talents might best serve my mother as she comes to London in a few weeks with Miss Darcy and my sister, Catherine."
    Lady Matlock studied the young woman up and down and sighed. The poor girl trembled and the last thing her hostess wanted was for Mary to leave feeling unwanted. "Come, come, I am sure you have your reasons. I will have Mr. Davies arrange for your trunks to be taken to Gracechurch Street. That is where you wish to go, is it not?"
    Mary nodded gratefully, relieved she had not revealed her behavior in the carriage. Making a curtsy, she left the room to finish packing her personal effects in the lavish guest suite she had enjoyed for the summer. Lady Matlock groaned and pulled the bell chord to summon Davies.
    When the man appeared, she handed him a note she had scrawled at the desk with the direction for Miss Mary and her trunks. "And tell my son, Richard James Fitzwilliam, his mother awaits his pleasure in the study. Just like that, if you please." With an angry swish of her skirts, Margaret Fitzwilliam mentally listed duties she was not fulfilling by awaiting her wayward son.
    A few moments into cooling her anger, Richard entered the study and the countess's blood boiled over once more. "Close the door."
    "Am I to receive a reprimand, Mother?"
    "You tell me! What did you do to Miss Mary?"
    The Colonel's mouth dropped, but he quickly returned it to it's rightful place. Rubbing his chin, he hedged his words. "What did she tell you?"
    Hands on her hips, the Countess of Matlock marched across the rug to stand toe-to-toe with her son who towered over her. With a wag of her finger she informed him that whatever his transgression, it was his fault that Mary Bennet would not retire with them to the country, and that it was his responsibility to correct the error of his ways.
    "That girl is as good as family, and we do not treat family as we would a woman in the street! Her emotions are hopelessly tangled over you. I suspect you feel the same."
    The Colonel rocked back on his heels, shocked by his mother's assault on his personal life. "I cannot provide for her. She won't want to live on a Colonels' salary."
    "Have you even discussed the possibility with her? It seems to me that talk of money is rather unromantic and your generation is meant to be the sentimental type. Why, for season after season, have both my sons turned down every eligible maiden I have thrown their way? But no, you stand here, proving to be as mercenary as the Mamas." Lady Matlock's eyes flashed dangerously at her son, her blood pressure throbbing in her head as she dwelled on the wasted time and effort of her failure to find matches for her two restless sons.
    "Mother, Robert and I do wish to consider our feelings in our matches, do not despair." The Colonel bowed to his mother and offered his rakish smile, but she refused to relent. "But being a second son, yes, I am mindful of the style in which I may keep a wife. Miss Mary . . ." he paused, considering the esteem he held for her to be higher than any he had ever felt for a member of the fairer sex, "Miss Mary deserves a world I cannot provide."
    Frustrated, Lady Matlock groaned and pushed past Richard. As she swung open the doors to the study, she turned to glare at her son one last time in exasperation.
    "We will just see what your father has to say." Leaving the Colonel standing in the middle of the room, he did not remain long as he hurried after his mother. He had no plans to allow his parents to conspire against him, and he had yet to inform them of Wickham's fate.
     
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    Her bare toes wiggling in the pond, Elizabeth Darcy laughed at her husband trying to coax a squirrel to