Free Lady Olivia To The Rescue by Julia Parks Page A

only say that, Lady Olivia, because you have both. This is only my second Season, and I have no desire to settle for someone almost twice my age.”
    “Perfectly understandable,” said Olivia. “Shall we join the gentlemen?” Clicking her tongue, she sent her mare forward to catch up with the two gentlemen.
    So much for the pretty Miss Hollingsworth. Perhaps Miss Featherstone’s cousin, Miss Fallon, would prove more suitable for the handsome marquess. Olivia glanced at his profile. She did find him very handsome. He was not a youth, just as Miss Hollingsworth had said, but the man was hardly in his dotage. The silvering of his dark hair at the temples only added to his elegance, rather than detracted from it. If he would smile more often…
    She heaved a sigh—too loudly, as it attracted the marquess’s attention. He turned to her, and his dark eyes were intent but not sardonic. He didn’t smile, but his eyes changed subtly, the corners crinkling in amusement. Olivia stared, forgetting her mare for a moment, and the beast sidestepped daintily, causing Olivia to grab at the pommel. His hand shot out, effortlessly bringing the little mare under control.
    “Thank you, Lord Sheridan.”
    “Not at all, Lady Olivia. Perhaps you would do better in one of the carriages until we have left behind the hustle and bustle of the city.”
    Flushing uncomfortably, Olivia said, “I am fine. My attention merely strayed for a few seconds.”
    Olivia chastised herself silently—not for forgetting her surroundings, but for having such kindly thoughts toward the cynical man. He was not the sort she could care for, not even on the best of days. He was much too superior for her taste. Miss Fallon, however, was just an impressionable girl in her first Season. She shouldn’t mind having someone tell her what to do all the time.
    “Lady Olivia, Miss Hollingsworth and I were wondering exactly where it is that we are going?” asked Mr. Thomas.
    “Mr. Pendleton is leading us to a quiet little spot on his estate near Richmond. It shouldn’t take too long to get there.”
    “How is it you know Pendleton?” asked Lord Sheridan.
    “I was friends with his late wife. Such a tragedy. He took it so hard. I am pleased to see that he is rejoining society this Season.”
    “Why would he not? He still has need of a broodmare.”
    “Lord Sheridan! Your conversation is not only unsuitable, it is also quite heartless. How can you say such a thing?”
    “I say it because it is the truth. Pendleton needs an heir. How else is he to get one without marrying a young woman all over again—just like last time. I assumed that was why you sought him out.”
    ‘That is insulting to both me and my late friend. What is more, it is untrue! Suzannah cared for Mr. Pendleton.”
    “For his money, you mean. I hear the marriage settlement pulled that foolish brother of hers out of the River Tick just in time. And as for her mother’s extravagance at the dressmaker…”
    “Nevertheless, Suzannah cared very deeply.... “
    “Yes, yes, that is what they always say. But I ask you, would your friend have married Pendleton if he had been penniless?”
    Lord Sheridan dropped back then to ride beside one of the carriages, conversing with the people inside for a moment. Olivia, still fuming, could not have managed speech if her life depended on it. She had known he was cynical, but his attitude was positively disparaging of his own class. How he could bear to be a part of something he so despised, she could not imagine. How hypocritical of the man.
    Olivia vowed to have nothing to do with him for the remainder of the day. He could just take those broad shoulders and that handsome face and find someone else to annoy!

    “I don’t know why I let you talk me into coming today,” muttered Sheridan while he frowned at his friend. They passed the tables and chairs that had been set up for the picnic and strolled toward the others.
    “Talk you into it? Why, you