A Bride for the Prizefighter - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,64
that drew the little lead horses over the finish line. Mina found Incitatus to be a most lucky horse and in all, had the most overall wins from the three of them.
“I believe,” Teddy said at the conclusion. “That Incitatus is my second favorite horse,” he said stroking the little brown horse’s back with his finger.
“Have you met your Papa’s Incitatus?”
Teddy nodded. “He’s a chestnut, like this one.” He carefully started placing the horses back inside the box.
“You must meet my horses sometime, Mina,” Jeremy said on impulse, jumping up. “But first, you must come and view our mother’s portrait.” Mina rose and to her surprise, Teddy also accompanied them downstairs.
“It’s this way,” said Teddy, dancing ahead. “In the Blue Drawing room.”
“You go ahead,” Jeremy directed her, stopping next to a footman who was not Colfax. “I’ll ask for some refreshment to be served to us there.”
Mina followed Teddy into a very elegant room with decorated blue silk panels hanging on the walls. “Oh, this is a lovely room,” she exclaimed with pleasure as Teddy walked to the opposite end and stood in front of a large portrait of a young woman in a ballgown of foamy pink. “Here!” he said, flinging up an arm.
“Mama,” Mina sighed, coming to a halt beside him.
She felt Teddy’s gaze on her face as she beheld her mother’s pink and white complexion, her gleaming blonde ringlets, and the ropes of pearls at her throat. It was quite a feat to look that demure, Mina thought, considering how much of her bare white shoulders was on display. She could of course see it was Mama, but far younger than she remembered her and certainly decked out much more splendidly.
Had she been so very unhappy here, Mina wondered? She remembered Jeremy’s words from earlier, about the old Viscount only respecting her after she had left him. If he had been anything like Will Nye in temperament as well as looks, she could not imagine her mother would have fared at all well with such a man. Her own Nye would have made a milk jelly of her. Her thoughts made her start. Her own Nye… when had she started thinking of him as such?
“Mama wanted it moved,” Teddy commented. “And her own portrait hung here, but Papa had hers put on the opposite wall instead.”
Mina turned about to look at the opposite wall, where another blonde lolled, this time against a Grecian urn full of blooms in a dress of blue satin with an extremely low neckline. Her expression could not have been more different to Mina’s mother’s if she had tried. Despite her careless pose, her gray eyes were bold and knowing and the hand that held a blooming white rose to her bosom, seemed less to symbolize purity, than to deliberately draw attention to her charms.
“Your Mama is very beautiful,” she said, unable to think of anything more original. Funnily enough, it was the first time that day she had even remembered Vance Park had a current mistress.
“She’s lying abed with a sore head this morning,” Teddy said impassively. “She never gets up till noon. Last night, she threw a crystal vase at Papa and then spent all evening dancing in the music room with Colfax.”
Mina started. Dancing with Colfax? For a moment she wondered if she had heard him correctly. “Is your Mama fond of music?” she asked, with an attempt to steer things into safer waters.
“She likes dancing,” Teddy answered with a shrug.
“What do you think?” Jeremy came into the room and Mina hurriedly turned back around to looking at her late mother.
“I think it’s a very beautiful portrait,” she said. “And you were quite right, far superior to my own miniature.”
Her brother was silent a moment, gazing up at the pretty painted face. Then he too, looked across at Mina before turning back to it in silent contemplation.
“Are you still sorry I don’t resemble her?” she asked lightly, though she did not really know what prompted the question.
“No,” Jeremy said after a long pause. “No, I rather think it’s for the best all told.”
“You don’t look like a bit like her,” Teddy said frankly. “She wouldn’t know about Incitatus, would she, Papa? Or Alexander the Great. I can tell,” he added darkly. “She’d like dancing and sleeping in bed late.”
“Not when I knew her,” Mina answered truthfully. “She liked embroidery and sentimental tales about self-sacrifice. Oh, and pictures of kittens and babies in frilly dresses.”