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Enough of this! He stalked to the library door and opened it, nearly mowing Mr. Snow down in the process.
“Goodness, my lord, sir,” the man said, obviously regaining his composureandhis sense of humor quickly. “I was just coming to find you. This letter arrived for you from Alderwood.” Then he winked—winked!—at Ben as he bowed and retreated.
Ben should fire him for lack of propriety and respect, except he rather liked that Mr. Snow was a bit of a character and wasn’t intimidated by his new landlord.
He remained where he was and broke the seal, surprised that he would hear from Alderwood at all, let alone on such a busy day. He began to read.
Ben,
My brother Lucas and his wife and their family have arrived to spend time with me while Mama and Papa are away. I hope you will accept this invitation to join us for supper this evening so that I may introduce you to them. I must warn you, however, you may be coerced into joining a rousing game of charades.
Dinner and charades, hmm. Dinner and charades and meeting more people wasn’t what he’d traveled to Lincolnshire to do. He’d intended to spend time with himself.
And he’d been utterly bored today.
He dashed off a quick note and went in search of Snow. “Mr. Snow,” he said when he found the man speaking to his wife in the kitchen. “Please have Peter send my reply back to Miss Rebecca. And then, if you please, I’d like to have a bath drawn. I am dining at Alderwood this evening.”
Snow started to grin again before coughing and assuming a dignified bearing. “Very well, sir—my lord,” he said, earning him a poke in the arm from Mrs. Snow.
“I do not believe there is anything to be interpreted by wanting to appear at one’s best when meeting more of one’s neighbors,” Ben said. And then he went upstairs to await the hot water.
* * *
Rebecca wasn’t sure what made her most nervous: what Ben’s reaction would be to Lucas’s family—in particular, his beautiful and radiant red-haired wife and her adopted, exceedingly eclectic family—or what their reaction would be to the serious and restrained Mr. Fortescue, who was, in truth, the Earl of Winton. Either way, she expected it to be an interesting evening.
The family, excluding the children who were taking supper in the nursery, was currently gathered in the front parlor, awaiting Ben’s arrival. After the prerequisite niceties, they would make their way to the dining room and afterward to the music room, where entertainments and parlor games would ensue.
That was the plan, at least, assuming everything went according to plan.
The problem was that whenever Delia and Artie were around, one couldn’t always expect everything to go according to plan. In fact, one should expect things to gocontraryto plan—but that was also the joy that was Delia and Artie. Life was never dull with those two in company.
Rebecca clasped her hands tightly in her lap and tried to pretend she was involved in the conversations going on around her, smiling and nodding as seemed appropriate.
Finally, after what felt like forever, there was a subtle knock at the door, and then Hawkins entered and cleared his throat. “Mr. Fortescue,” he said, announcing their guest, and then he gestured for Ben to enter the room. Rebecca’s heart immediately began to race. Why she should be reacting in such a manner, she wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps it was because she was concerned that her extended family might blame him for her injury and, therefore, be distant and cool toward him.
Maybe it was because she hoped they would like and approve of him.
Approve? She pushed the foolish notion from her mind. Ben was a friend, despite their rocky start, and her siblings and the others would see what an honorable person and good neighbor he was. Why should she hope for theirapproval?
“I should rise and welcome you,” she said, “and introduce you to the rest of my family, but I believe we can do away with such a formality, all things considered.”
Ben nodded in agreement.
“It is good to see you again, Mr. Fortescue,” Isobel said, smiling brightly at Ben. Why had Rebecca never been bothered by just how golden-haired and beautiful Isobel was? And why was she suddenly irritated by Lavinia’s eye-catching attractiveness?
If only Isobel weren’t smiling quite so brightly.
“A pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Jennings,” Ben said with a polite bow.
Rebecca needed to stop these wayward thoughts before they got further out of hand. “Thomas, Lucas, everyone, allow me to present our new neighbor, Mr. Benjamin Fortescue,” she said. “Ben, this is my eldest brother, Thomas, who is married to Isobel, whom you already know; my brother Lucas and his wife, Lavinia; Mr. Arthur Drake and his wife, Delia Weston; and Miss Hannah Broome.”
“A pleasure to meet all of you,” Ben said as he acknowledged each of the men and then took each lady’s hand in turn and bowed over it.
“You certainly are a tall and handsome one,” Delia said. “Were I but a few years younger—”
“Were you a few years younger, I would still have snatched you up and made you mine,” Artie replied, looking directly at her.
“‘Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy; / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on,’” Delia said, speaking in rather dramatic tones. “Othello, act 3, scene 3.”
