Keeping the Castle - By Patrice Kindl Page 0,13

be envied than pitied.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Indeed, my lord, you are in the right there. I shall save my pity for a more deserving object than a handsome young man who has joined the ranks of the aristocracy and inherited a great fortune in the process.”

“Oh well, as to that . . .” the Marquis began, but then thought better of it, and fell silent. Immediately afterwards we found ourselves swept back into the dance.

After the Marquis I danced with Majors Dunthorpe and Simpson, and then once more with Lord Boring.

I must confess I was delighted with Lord Boring. His dancing was not as good as the Marquis’s but to tell the truth, the Marquis was so good as to make my own efforts seem slow and stumbling in comparison, at least in my own eyes. Lord Boring moved gracefully and well, but without the fire and brilliance of his guest, for which I was thankful.

I enquired how he was enjoying his new home.

“Very well indeed,” he replied. “I am fond of Town in the season, but once the hot weather sets in, who would not rather be in the countryside? Now that I have left Oxford, I have every expectation of becoming a thorough-going countryman and making the best of my rustication.”

I smiled, acknowledging his jest—“rustication” was more often used in the sense of having been expelled from college, of being exiled to the country rather than going to live there of one’s own choosing.

“I hope you will not find our company a punishment,” I said. “Your new neighbors are pleased to have a larger, and perhaps more lively, household than your late uncle’s established here at Gudgeon Park. We hope to please and entertain you enough to keep you here for much of the year. I believe your mother is fond of whist and hazard and other games of chance. I fear she will find few partners here, at least not for high stakes. We do not gamble more than sixpence at a time in these parts.”

Lord Boring agreed that his mother was a great card-player, but confessed he himself was but an indifferent one. He preferred to be out of doors, he said.

“Are you a keen horseman?” I enquired.

“I am, and I look forward to exploring the neighborhood. The cliff walks along the sea appear to be very fine, as are the great stretches of moorland I see about me—my horse and I are anxious for a good gallop.”

“You are city-bred, my lord?” I enquired. When he agreed, I suggested that perhaps he should have a groom show him the best places for his gallops. “For your tenant farmers will not thank you for trampling their crops, or for leaving gates open. And some parts of the moor can be dangerous, not to mention the cliff paths. Fog is always a concern on those narrow tracks above the sea.”

“I can see I shall require a guide—my new life has rules and consequences I cannot guess at. But no groom could advise me as well as you—will you not put your local knowledge at my service? It would be a great kindness to a new, and ignorant, neighbor.”

I smiled and said I would do all I could, and then the dance claimed our attention.

At last I returned to my mother’s side—she was alone, as Mrs. Fredericks had been obliged to go and see to some arrangements in the kitchen—and she demanded an account of my time.

“I saw you standing up with the Marquis. It was an honor that he secured you as a partner so quickly,” she said, “tho’ of course that is no great cause for amazement, you being by far the prettiest girl here.” Having heard my demurral and my favorable opinion of the Marquis, she then enquired about my other partners.

“Why, then it was Major Dunthorpe, and after that his friend Major Simpson, then Lord Boring, and then both the Hadleigh twins—one after another, of course—and then a Mr. Pultney, and after that—”

“You shall tell me about each of them by and by, but I am anxious to know if you have danced with Mrs. Fredericks’s son. He is here, she tells me, and is excessively handsome, agreeable, and clever and just the sort of young man you would like.”

“No, I don’t believe we have met.” The only man with whom I had danced who struck me as excessively handsome, agreeable, and clever was Lord Boring, and my eyes wandered for a moment, seeking