Lady Elizabeth's Comet

Sheila Simonson

Description

Elizabeth Conway's greatest ambition is to discover a comet. Unfortunately, she is the eldest of eight daughters of an earl, so her relatives expect her to take her rightful place in Society. The heavenly bodies she views through her telescope hold far more fascination for Elizabeth than any mere male, although her perpetual beau, dashing Lord Bevis, would change that if he could. When Tom Conroy, a distant cousin and the new Earl of Clanross, appears after a year's delay, Elizabeth offers him a cool welcome. He is a dull stick and ill-mannered to boot. Yet he is the only man who has shown respect for her astronomical work, and his concern for her younger sisters' welfare reveals a different side to him. Then his heir, Elizabeth's cousin Willoughby, appears with the obvious intent of making a match between his lovely but silly sister and Clanross--and as much mischief as he can. Lord Bevis presses his suit with Lady Elizabeth, until she agrees, at long last, to marry him. She resists making an announcement, though, until he tells his somewhat traditional father that he will not only be marrying an heiress but her telescope. Elizabeth discovers a comet. Clanross proclaims his pride in her accomplishment, but Lord Bevis's reaction is far more traditional. Willoughby introduces a beautiful woman into the mix and the twins further complicate it. Distraught, confused, perhaps even heartbroken, Elizabeth faces the question of what to do with the rest of her life. And what to do about Clanross, whom she just might love.

Sujets

• Historical romance

Informations

• Publié par: Uncial Press
• Date de parution: 18 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781601740465
• Langue: English

Extrait

Lady Elizabeth's Comet
Regency Romance
by
Sheila Simonson
 
 
Uncial Press       Aloha, Oregon 2008
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein areproducts of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirelycoincidental.
ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-046-5 ISBN 10: 1-60174-046-8
Copyright © 2008 by Sheila Simonson
Cover design by Judith B. Glad
All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this workin whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known orhereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.
Published by Uncial Press, an imprint of GCT, Inc.
Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com
Chapter 1
The night was glorious. Moonless November nights sometimes are--crisp and still andso clear there seems to be no barrier between the observer and the stars.
I am an astronomer. I spent the evening and half the long night with my instrument.Although I had been absorbed for a week in tracing a dark nebulosity in Cepheus, I kept losingmyself that night in the beauty of the sky. Finally my limbs and fingers cramped with the cold. Igave up.
I climbed down from my sturdy platform, hitching my skirts over one arm to avoidstumbling in the dark, shook Harris, my long-suffering groom, awake, and with one last look atthe spangled arch of black above me, went into the Dower House.
I slept very late. By then the members of my household were so used to my eccentricitythat nothing I did surprised them--or, if it did, they had the prudence not to voice their feelings. Ihad slept past noon before Dobbins, my abigail, worked up the courage to enter my bedchamber.She rattled the tea tray, fumbled about relighting the dead fire, and thrust the curtains open with aswoosh. Light flooded the room.
I buried my head in the pillow.
"Are you awake, my lady?"
"Mmmnf."
"Which shall it be? The blue wool or the green with the striped spencer?"
"Go away."
"Great doings at Brecon, my lady."
I opened my eyes, blinking hard as they accommodated to the glare. "Great doings? Letme guess. Jenkins has dropped the Sèvres tea service." I yawned. "And Mrs. Smollet hasturned him off at five and seventy without a character."
Dobbins repressed a smug smile. "How you do go on, my lady. The blue?"
I poured a cup of tea and sipped. "What o'clock is it?"
"A quarter of one."
"No, is it? I've missed breakfast again."
"Never mind, Lady Elizabeth. Cook says eggs a la Benedick in half an hour and Mrs.Finch wishes to know should the young ladies go off to the village after all?"
I set down my cup, staring. "Why should they not?"
"Well, my lady, seeing as how his lordship has finally come..."
"Lord Clanross?" I sat bolt upright, wide awake at last.
"Yes, my lady. Jem says he drove up in the old light travelling carriage your Papa left inLunnon, but the team's nobbut job horses, Jem says. How times has changed..."
"Hush. Let me think. Did his lordship leave a card?"
"There was a note not ten minutes ago, my lady. One of the Brecon footmen brought it.Willie, I b'lieve."
I groaned. "Is there hot water, Dobbins?"
A clanking in the hall indicated that the footman had done his duty. "Directly, my lady."Dobbins whisked from the room.
Cautiously I stepped into the warmed slippers Dobbins had placed beside my bed, and Ishivered as the draught curled about my ankles. I pulled my robe over my shoulders. Dobbinsreentered bearing a steaming cannikin. She poured its contents into my handbasin and helped meinto my blue gown. I was thinking furiously.
"Shall I dress your hair, my lady?"
I examined my reflection in the pier glass. Respectable. At least my complexion glowedfrom the frosty night air. My thick chestnut hair, which Dobbins had begun to brush free oftangles, is my best attribute. Given some encouragement, it waves.
"Pull it back," I said ruthlessly.
"Oh, my lady!"
I ignored Dobbins's wail. I meant to look austere. I would be receiving a call from thenew earl shortly, and I did not intend to make concessions for a jumped-up third cousin who hadtaken more than a year to arrive at his principal seat. He might be Head of the Family, but Imeant him to know what I thought of his sluggishness. After all, I was not quite Nobodymyself.
My father had two sons, neither of whom survived infancy, and eight healthy daughters.I am the eldest. The present earl, my father's remote cousin, had never before clapped eyes onBrecon. I hoped he might not have suffered an apoplexy at first sight. Brecon exhibits all themore bodacious qualities of Castle Howard and the Bank of England. It is Palladian, huge, andcold as a tomb.
The earl's note, addressed with stiff propriety to "the Lady Elizabeth Conway," awaitedme in the morning room. I opened it over my superbly sauced eggs.
"Madam," it said baldly, "if it suits your convenience, I shall do myself the honour ofcalling upon you at four o'clock this afternoon. My compliments. Clanross."
I found myself staring at the signature. It was black and stiff and unadorned. My fatherhad been earl of Clanross, too. Papa's signature had flowed elegantly in the Italian manner of hisgeneration. Though it was by then more than a year since my father's death, it disturbed me to asurprising degree to read "Clanross" in that curt, graceless hand.
With an effort I turned back to my nuncheon.
When my sisters bounced into the house at three they found me at work beside thewithdrawing-room fire, transcribing my notes.
"Oh, Lizzie, Clanross has finally come!" That was Maggie, fiery red hair atangle.
"Lord Clanross."
Maggie ignored my correction. Jean, her identical twin, said in affected accents, "Mydear, the villagers are all agog. Too comic."
I raised my brows.
Jean flushed but she gave me back a grey-eyed, half-defiant stare. Jean and Margaret,really my half-sisters, were fourteen, an uncomfortable age. Jean was growing up faster than hertwin. I wondered what, if anything, could be done to mend her manners.
"That will do, Jean." I turned to Alice Finch, my companion, who had accompanied thegirls to the rectory in Earl's Brecon, where the long-suffering rector was trying without strikingsuccess to turn them into Christian gentlewomen. "Good afternoon, Alice. You look breathless. Ihope the twins haven't worn you down entirely."
Alice gave me an uncertain smile. Her hands fluttered like limed birds. "Oh, no. Mr.Bedell is in spirits today. We had a comfortable coze. His catarrh has quite cleared up, and hethanks you most sincerely for the liniment."
Mrs. Alice Finch, a genteel and impoverished widow, had been foisted on me by mymarried sister, Anne, in a fit of propriety, and the arrangement was not working well. I did notneed a companion. At eight-and-twenty I was not a green girl. Alice's sociable nature wasthwarted at the Brecon Dower House. I rarely played cards, nor did I entertain company, and myastronomical work baffled her.
I daresay Alice found my life as dull as I found her. I had to admit, however, that shedealt conscientiously with Jean and Maggie. They had been shipped to me in June by my othermarried sister, Kitty, Lady Kinnaird. Kitty had judged the girls ungovernable. So had thegovernesses I had hired for them. To do her credit, Alice had rallied round when the governessesfled, but the twins' high spirits exhausted her, and indeed, they were not her work. I was.
"May we walk up to Brecon?" Maggie again.
"No, you may not. His lordship will call within the hour."
Grumbling, the girls composed themselves to wait.
* * * *
"He's coming! He's coming!" Jean had been at the window nearly the whole hour. Ipeered out. I could just see a small upright smudge making its slow way down the half mile ofrolled lawn that spreads its blank apron before the east wing of Brecon. At that pace it wouldcertainly be four o'clock before his lordship appeared on my doorstep.
Ashriek with excitement, the twins pestered me to allow them to await Lord Clanross inthe withdrawing room. There I drew the line. I am not inhumane. Brecon and the twins in oneshort afternoon would overset the most stalwart of men.
I did permit my sisters to conceal themselves on the landing where they could watch hislordship's arrival unespied, and I promised faithfully to call them down if he wished to meetthem. Further than that I would not go. They were still schoolroom misses, after all.
Alice and I seated ourselves side by side on the withdrawing-room sopha, hands folded,waiting. The fire crackled. A decanter of amber sherry winked on its spotless tray. Agnew, mybutler and majordomo, had lit one branch of candles, for the room faces east and because of thewoods is apt to grow dark early.
The soft light glowed on polished wood and brocade and marble. On the white mantle ofthe Adam fireplace the enamelled clock Papa brought me from Paris during the Peace of Amienswhirred and chimed four.
"I saw him start out. He was walking very slowly." I stopped, annoyed with myself forchattering.
Alice made a polite sound and twitched her ruffled silk into smoother folds. "Shall youinvite his lordship to take his dinner with us?"
"No." That seemed harsh. After a pause, I added, "No, we needn't go that far. The mereobservance of civility is all that seems called for. It's not as if he were really Family."
The minutes stretched. At last, just as the clock struck the quarter, Agnew opened thefront door and we heard subdued male voices from the foyer. I took a long breath and begancomposing formal greetings.
"Lord Clanross, my lady." Agnew held the withdrawing-room door, then closed it neatlybehind our caller.
The polite phrases died on my lips.
My father's successor was a stick man, a marionette, a caricature--and oddly colourless.His hair was grey-brown, his skin brown tinged w