AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Lavinia wasn’t sure what to do with herself. The previous day had been exhausting, but she’d lain awake most of the night nonetheless, knowing that Lucas would be returning to Primrose Farm early that morning and she would be left to carry on the charade without him for most of the day.
She’d risen later than she’d intended as a result, certain Lucas’s family held to country hours, and berated herself for the reflection her lateness might have on Lucas. She’d washed and donned the most demure day dress she had, a simple muslin with a high neckline and no flounces, then she’d brushed and twisted her unruly curls into a knot at the back of her head.
She should go downstairs and face Lucas’s family. But she wasn’t ready to do that quite yet.
She removed a small notebook she kept in the false bottom of her jewel case. Anything she’d been given of worth from her admirers she’d sold to jewelers or pawned and had added the money to her carefully invested savings. In order to appease her conscience, she’d always declined any such gifts, only accepting something if the gentleman was stubbornly insistent—and thenshe’d made it clear that it was agift, not a quid pro quo in expectation ofreceiving sensual favors.
She had watched her father and his women enough as a girl—the countless occasions she’d seen him wander off with one to a local pub after rehearsals or performances, his returning home the following morning to sleep off too much drink, stinking of stale perfume and gin. He’d at least had enough decency not to bring the women under their roof—whatever roof it had happened to be in whatever town they were staying. Lavinia suspected he’d known Hannah would have shooed him and his light-o’-love out the door with a heavy broom if he’d done so.
Lavinia had not known what a light-o’-love was back then and had been jealous of the women and the attention her father had given them.
That had changed when she’d turned thirteen, following a performance in Newbury ofThe Babes in the Wood.Lavinia, despite her impending womanhood, had played one of the orphaned children left abandoned by the wicked uncle in the wood. It had been a good role with actual spoken lines, the first role in which Lavinia had played a significant part rather than appearing as a background performer of some type. She’d been flattered to have been chosen and had gone into rehearsals with a great deal of enthusiasm. Her father had seemed pleased too.
Opening night, however, Lavinia had discovered the hard way that the actor playing the wicked uncle was, indeed, wicked, when he took her aside and whispered in her ear the kinds of delights they might share together during the duration of the run.
Lavinia hadn’t known what he’d been talking about; she’d known only that she hadn’t wanted any part of what he’d been suggesting. The incident had actually helped her performance during the run of the show, for she’d truly been able to convey total repugnance toward the wicked uncle onstage as well as offstage. After that, Hannah had stuck to her side like a stern governess wherever she went.
By the time Lavinia’s father had died, she’d had her fill of opportunistic men and their coarse intentions.
Shaking off her gloomy memories, she opened her notebook and studied the numbers written within, trying to imagine how much of her hard-earned savings she would need to spend on Primrose Farm before she and the others could at least move in. She was not comfortable here at Alderwood, despite the polite hospitality being offered. She was not comfortable being here under false pretenses.
She added the columns to check her sums, then added them again and then again just to be sure. There was really no way for her to determine what the expenses would be, not until Lucas and the others returned. She had no experience whatsoever with which to even venture a guess. She wished she’d gone with them despite Lucas’s gentle insistence that she remain behind.
Her calculations did nothing to clarify the situation, and really, she was simply avoiding the inevitable—leaving her room and joining the family downstairs.
She closed the notebook and tucked it back into the false bottom of the jewel case, then returned the case to the wardrobe. She peeked at herself in the mirror, patted her hair to make sure her pins were securely in place, and then straightened her back and lifted her chin before leaving her room.
It was time for Lavinia, betrothed lady, to make her entrance in this little farce.
“Oh, good. There you are. I was just about to send a servant up to check on you.” Lucas’s sister Susan stood at the bottom of the stairs watching Lavinia as she descended to the main floor. “Where are the others?”
“Still asleep,” Lavinia said, hoping her voice sounded convincingly cultured. No one had commented to the contrary yesterday, so that was a good thing. “Delia and Artie aren’t used to country hours. They may not show themselves until after noon. Hannah is usually an early riser, like myself, but I suspect she was more tired than usual after yesterday’s travel. I thought to let her sleep.”
They reached the breakfast room, a cheery, intimate space with windows that let in the morning sunshine. “Please ask Cook to arrange for hot cocoa and toast to be sent up to our guests’ rooms in an hour,” Susan said to the footman, who stood inside the door. He nodded and left. “There you go, Lavinia. You are not to worry about your cousins and friend. Now, please help yourself to whatever you wish at the sideboard.”
“Where is the rest of the family?” Lavinia asked as she dished eggs and sausage onto a plate. She and Susan were the only two here.
“Father has broken his fast already and is inspecting the grounds since Finch accompanied Lucas and Isaac to your farm. Mother rarely eats breakfast, preferring tea and toast in her room when she wakes, but she should be joining us shortly. Rebecca—”
“Rebecca what?” Rebecca herself asked as she entered the room.
Susan dished eggs and toast onto her plate and set it on the table across from Lavinia, who had seated herself. “Rebecca is a wonderful baby sister of whom I am inordinately fond. And if I know my sister well—and I do—she can usually be found wherever there is anything new and exciting taking place.” Susan raised her hand to the side of her mouth. “And you, Miss Fernley,” she said in a stage whisper, “are definitely new and themostexciting thing to happen to this family in longer than I can remember.”
“That is true,” Rebecca said, dishing up a plate of food for herself. “Most of the excitement in the family occurs far away from Alderwood, and I must beg Mama to tell me what my brothers and sisters write in their letters. To have you and Lucas here, to watch your love and betrothal unfold, is a delicious dream.” She plopped into the chair next to Lavinia as Susan poured tea for each of them.
“Rebecca really is a clever girl.” Susan sighed dramatically. “Although you would never know it from her overly romantic declarations. Please do not wax rhapsodic over the ecstasies of love, Rebecca. Not while I’m eating, at least.”
Lavinia sipped her tea to cover her smile.
“Susan is a self-avowed bluestocking, you know, Miss Fernley,” Rebecca said.
“Please call me Lavinia, if you would. What is a blue—”
“Oh, that’s smashing! I should love for you to call me Rebecca, above all things. A bluestocking is a lady who prefers books to men.”
Susan rolled her eyes. “That’s rather an oversimplification of the word,” she said.
“Susan has always beenexceedinglyclever,” Rebecca continued. “Even more clever than James, who is a solicitor in Lincoln and was always at the top of his class.”
