Spinster Ever After (The Spinster Chronicles #7) - Rebecca Connolly Page 0,52
now. “Mr. Riley, good morning!” she greeted, curtseying when he neared.
He tipped his hat, bowing. “Miss Wright. The morning air does your constitution credit, if I may be so bold.”
“It’s not that bold, I concede that it does.” She turned to her mother. “Mama, may I present Mr. Riley? We met at the Prestons’ ball, and then again last week at the Bonds’ dinner party.”
“Delighted, Mr. Riley,” her mother said with a bob of her head.
He bowed again. “As am I, ma’am.” He looked at Charlotte, his smile almost sheepish. “I am sorry we did not have a chance to speak much at the party. My cousins do tend to monopolize me when I am in London.”
“The Bonds are your cousins?” Charlotte exclaimed with a smile. “But of course, I can see the resemblance now. Do I take it that Mr. Bond is your relation?”
Mr. Riley nodded, grinning unabashedly. “He is, Miss Wright. My mother’s brother. I have my own lodgings in London, but I find myself pressed upon to attend several meals with them a week. I cannot think why, I possess little of the refinements of Society.”
Charlotte did not agree in the least, but she was not about to say so. “We ladies see enough of refinement everywhere else, Mr. Riley. What we are in desperate need of is good company.”
“And refinement and good company are mutually exclusive?” he asked, his smile turning crooked, which was nearly impossibly handsome.
Struggling for wit amidst the flurry of butterflies within her, Charlotte shook her head. “Not always, but they are to be valued for themselves alone, regardless.”
“And you seem to be quite good company, Mr. Riley,” Charlotte’s mother broke in. “Will you join us on our walk? Unless you have a pressing engagement, in which case, we would not dream of delaying you.”
Charlotte could have hugged her mother to death for her suggestion and held her breath as she anticipated Mr. Riley’s answer.
Blessedly, he nodded. “I would very much enjoy joining you. My business is not at all pressing, and a walk would be quite beneficial.”
“It usually is,” her mother agreed, stepping to one side to allow more room on the path and releasing Charlotte’s arm.
Charlotte gestured to the spot on her left, smiling. “We are sometimes brisk in our strides, Mr. Riley. Leisurely strolls are not quite our pace.”
“Charlotte, we can surely slow our steps if Mr. Riley wishes,” her mother scolded from her right. “It is not as though we make haste for any purpose.”
“As it happens,” Mr. Riley informed them, “I have been known to take long strides at a certain pace myself. It irks my mother to no end. She always claims it is unnecessary to hurry along as I do, and I try to explain that it is not hurrying for hurrying’s sake, it is only how I walk.”
“Exactly!” Charlotte cried, laughing at being so neatly understood in such a simple thing. “I can never walk with my friends for that exact reason. They do tend to lag so.”
Mr. Riley chuckled, the sound low and rumbling in the most delicious manner Charlotte had ever heard. “Would that be your friends from the Spinster Chronicles?”
Charlotte sobered just a little, nerves flaring at the question. “Yes,” she replied with some hesitation. “Yes, it would.”
Her mother reached for her hand and squeezed tightly before releasing.
“I have tried to my utmost,” he went on, his dark eyes staring down at the path before them, “to identify which lady has written which article in the column, and upon my life, I have never managed it yet. Of course, I cannot be quite sure of the identity of the so-called Spinsters at any given time, so that surely does not help.”
Relief surged through Charlotte’s veins, nearly taking the strength from her legs. He did not disapprove, then. He did not judge nor harbor resentment, and he spoke of them as naturally as though they were any other set of women in the world.
What a find indeed was Mr. Jonathan Riley!
“You do not know who we are?” Charlotte inquired with a quick grin. “Mr. Riley, everybody knows who we are, you need only ask.”
“And where would be the fun in that, Miss Wright?” he returned easily. He glanced down at her from his nearly towering height, smiling in a way that showed his nearly perfect teeth.
One must always appreciate nearly perfect teeth.
Charlotte hummed a laugh. “You take delight in trying to identify us? How did you know I was part, then?”