Read Online Cousin Cecilia by Joan Smith - Free Book Online Page B

understand that his courting of Mrs. Meacham was to make himself appear respectable. The challenging gleam in his eye confirmed her suspicion.
    “You are very kind, but I cannot think—”
    Mrs. Meacham cut her off in mid-speech. “That is mighty handsome of you, milord. Now there you are, Cecilia. There is plenty of room in the stable, and I can easily spare a groom, so you need not let that hold you back.”
    “You forget, ma’am, my team are in the stable,” Cecilia pointed out.
    Mrs. Meacham immediately gave a lengthy enumeration of the stalls, and the cattle in them, and ended up saying, “And that leaves two boxes standing empty all the live long day.”
    “I’ll have Lady sent over this afternoon,” Wickham said. A smile of triumph rested on his arrogant face. “A tidy bay mare. Not up to my own weight. I shall accompany you on your first outing, to let you in on her little tricks.”
    “A tricky one, is she?” Cecilia said, quizzing him boldly. “I wonder why that does not surprise me.”
    “Well, she is a lady,” he riposted. Mrs. Meacham frowned at this non sequitur, but no one noticed. “Shall we say tomorrow morning, Miss Cummings?”
    “You forget tomorrow is Sunday. We shall be at service in the morning.”
    “Ah yes, so we shall.” A muscular spasm around his mouth betrayed his mood, without quite forming a smile. “Three o’clock then, if that suits you?”
    She was torn between a very real desire to ride, and a wish to show Wickham a lesson. He was accustomed to having his own way—that much was patently obvious. He had come in and charmed Mrs. Meacham to do his bidding with a shower of insincere compliments. She wavered a moment, and while she wavered, Mrs. Meacham rushed in and settled the affair.
    “There is no need to send Lady over this afternoon, Lord Wickham. Why do you not just bring her with you tomorrow afternoon, and save a trip?”
    He shot a triumphant look at Cecilia. “An excellent idea.” Before any further demur was possible, he was on his feet, excusing his hasty departure, but he had a meeting with his man of business. A charming visit... He would call tomorrow at three... And he was gone.
    “Well now, that was mighty handsomely done of him,” Mrs. Meacham declared, and glanced at the window. “There goes Sally Gardner again. She is like a dog after a cat. She’ll be galled that he was here. Aye, he’s fooled her this time. She has no excuse to go barging into his solicitor’s office. She’ll stay gawking in at the milliner’s window next door till he comes out.”
    Cecilia glanced out the window and saw a sharp-nosed lady of provincial cut, staring at the solicitor’s closed door. She wore a frustrated face. “I ought not to have borrowed a mount on such short acquaintance,” Cecilia said. She feared she was talking to herself, for her companion had run to the window, monitoring Sally Gardner as closely as Sally was monitoring Wickham.
    Mrs. Meacham heard, and answered. “Short acquaintance? You forget I have known Lord Wickham forever. Not well, you know, but as a neighbor. There is nothing in his loaning her to you when he cannot ride her himself. It is a pity he goes so little into society nowadays. Many a fine party was thrown at the Abbey when his wife was alive. She was quite a proverb for hospitality. She had the place done up after her marriage. That was only six years ago. I cannot think it is so bad as he says.”
    Cecilia took up her embroidery and the two ladies settled into the companion chairs in the embrasure of the bay window for easier surveillance of the High Street. “What was she like?” Cecilia asked.
    “Very pretty. Adrianna Heathmore is who she was before marriage. Her papa was a merchant. They say he made a monstrous deal of money in trade, but when they came here, he had sold out and set up as a gentleman on a nice estate about five miles north of the Maples. No one took much note of them at first, but then they sent Adrianna