Free A Home for Helena (The Lady P Chronicles Book 2) by Susana Ellis Page B

then Mrs. Peters can show you to your room. Oh, and if you are not tired by then—as you slept most of the day—I’m sure we can find a book for you in the library. Have you read anything by Mrs. Radcliffe?”
    Helena relaxed. She was beginning to like Lady Pendleton. A lot.
----
    Regent Street
    London
    The next day
    2:00 p.m.

    “ G rosvenor Square , Number 42,” Sir Henry called to his coachman as he climbed inside the spacious coach after James had dropped into a seat.
    James raised an eyebrow. “I thought it was Tattersall’s today.”
    Sir Henry rubbed his hands together in anticipation. “Indeed it is. Want you to take a look at a stallion. Looking for new breeding stock after old Gabe had to be put out to pasture last month.” His white teeth gleamed in the shadowy interior of the coach as he grinned. “Duty comes first, though. Sarah reminded me before we left Kent that today is her mother’s at-home." He shook his head. "If dear Lady P discovers I was in Town and missed it, she’ll say something to Sarah that will end by disrupting my happy home.”
    He leaned forward and clapped James on the shoulder. “No worries, old chap. A quarter of an hour doing the pretty and we’ll be off. Tattersall’s is practically on her doorstep, you know.”
    James rolled his eyes. Lady Pendleton was well-known for her frank and intrusive manner. She had a way of looking at a person that made you think she knew what you were thinking. She was also one who never failed to remind James that he owed it to his daughter to remarry.
    On one occasion, at a dinner party at Newsome Grange, he had told her in no uncertain terms to stop meddling in his life, and, after a brief moment of shocked silence, she’d thrown her head back and erupted in laughter that had silenced the entire table and delayed the presentation of the next course for a full five minutes.
    “I knew I liked you, Mr. Walker,” she’d said as she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. “A gentleman who speaks his mind. He thinks I’m a meddler,” she informed the other guests. “Can you imagine? Me—a meddler?”
    The room abounded with laughter, and Lady Sarah, with a sympathetic look, took pity on him.
    “My mother is the very definition of meddlesome, Mr. Walker. It is a cross my sisters and I have borne forever, and no doubt everyone here has suffered from it as well. Never fear—it will pass.”
    A quarter of an hour at Lady Pendleton's at-home? Surely he could manage to muddle through for that length of time.
    A stout, gray-haired butler with friendly blue eyes greeted them at the door and led them into the drawing room, where Lady Pendleton was bidding farewell to a caller. A Mrs. Endicott, he discovered as they were introduced. She looked him over with an appraising eye, and he discerned that she must have a marriageable daughter or two. He bid her goodbye, turned his head away, and found them drawn in by the prettiest green eyes he’d ever seen.
    Like the dewy fruit of the lime, they sparkled with tartness. A few strands of her red-blonde hair escaped from the knot at the back of her neck, and he had an urge to tuck them behind her ear. For all that he was sure they'd never met, there was a familiar look about her.
    “Dear Henry, how kind of you to drop by. Sarah and the children are well? And you brought Mr. Walker with you as well! I’m flattered that you condescended to come to my little at-home.”
    Her Ladyship, dressed in a bright yellow morning gown with big red rosettes, turned her penetrating brown eyes on him while she pulled the mystery woman to her side. “Allow me to introduce my protégée, Miss Lloyd. She is an American, the daughter of an old school friend who married and moved to the former colonies."
    "Helena, this is my son by marriage, Sir Henry Newsome, and a neighbor of his, Mr. James Walker.
    Miss Lloyd's face went white when she saw him and she stumbled back a step until steadying herself on the back of a nearby