Page 18 of The Cornish Lyon

“Did your father ever hold a ball?”

Her face fell a little further, bringing back the innocent schoolgirl, and a rather ridiculous impulse to reach out and take her hand had to be fought off. Sympathy had never been part of his playbook and he wasn’t about to start now.

She shook her head. “No, he did not. He led a very quiet life throughout my childhood.”

Fitz pulled a face. “Then we are stuck, I think, as Ellis will in all probability prove as ignorant as we are.”

She huffed. “No, we are not stuck. What we need to do is find someone who knows how to organize a ball and get them to do it for us. How hard can it be? I…we have plenty of money. There must be people in Town who could do that for us. Surely?” She didn’t sound all that certain of this.

He raised his brows at her. “Who do you suggest?”

She frowned as though stumped by this question. “I must admit that I have no idea whatsoever. Do you know anyone with such a capability?”

Fitz matched her frown for a moment. “Well…” He rubbed his smoothly shaven chin. “There is my sister, I suppose.”

Her face lit up in a most satisfying manner, and she gave him the sort of look he could appreciate. The sort of look that rendered her quite beautiful and put ideas into his head that had to be ignored for the moment.

“Of course,” she exclaimed. “I had forgotten you have a sister. Marianne, didn’t you say?” She clapped her hands, suddenly appearing much younger. “Can we ask her, do you think? You said she has a daughter, so surely she must know all about balls and such like.”

A sudden image of his formidable sister leapt into Fitz’s head. What was she going to say when he introduced his new wife to her? Still, he was going to have to do so at some point in the near future, so why not now? And he was also going to have to face his mother, who luckily was down at Denby. A natural optimist, he covered his doubts with another wide grin. “Of course we can. I’ll send a footman round with a card to let her know we’ll be calling tomorrow morning, and I will present you to her.”

Which would require some stiffening of his spine as his sister could be a bit too outspoken at times, but Georgiana didn’t need to know that. Yet. “But first, a matter of some importance. I would like to take you out for a drive in the park.” He forbore from saying he rather fancied showing off his good luck to whichever of the young bucks who would be promenading in the park this morning as he had an inclination she might not like that too much.

“A drive?” Her eyes opened wide. “I know we have several carriages in the mews but if you intend to take me out in one I fear you’ll find yourself between the shafts. After my papa died and I had to go to live with my aunt, she took it upon herself to sell all the horses and dismiss the grooms and coachman. As she was my legal guardian and in control of my inheritance, I couldn’t prevent her from doing so. I haven’t been down to look, of course, but the stables will be sadly empty.” Her eyes held a wistful expression.

Aha. His smile widened. “But you would like to go out for a drive?”

She nodded. “Very much. But I would like to ride even more. I am very fond of horses and Papa had given me the most beautiful bay mare, an Arabian cross, for my sixteenth birthday. I confess to never having forgiven my aunt for selling her.” From her expression, there must be many other things she’d not forgiven her aunt for, as well.

Fitz, who’d ridden since his earliest childhood, felt much encouraged. “Then what this household needs is horses, and obviously staff to care for them. We shall have to walk round to your solicitor’s this morning, I fear, but we can take a footman with us for safety. One can never be too careful in this day and age. Pickpockets and cutpurses abound on even the most respectable of streets.”

She nodded in agreement. Perhaps Aunt Patience had drummed this into her. At least she seemed to have been of some use to her niece.

“And after that, my dear Georgiana, I shall take you to buy some horses.”

Her eyes lit up with naked excitement. “You will? Papa, who was fond of personally choosing his horses, always told me a horse repository was no place for a young lady and never let me accompany him. I can truly come with you? I should love to see what such a place is like.” Her eyes sparkled. “We should get carriage horses, a nicely matched pair of Cleveland Bays, I think, and riding horses for both of us.” She patted her flat stomach. “I intend to ride for as long as possible.”

“You’ve done a lot of riding?”

A vigorous nod. “Of course. Papa said one of the things that distinguishes the gentry from everyone else is their love of horses.” Her brow furrowed. “Although, to be quite honest, I have seen some dreadful treatment of horses by certain members of the gentry.”

“Here in London?”

She shook her head. “No. For I was never much about as my aunt kept me closeted in her house.” An angry glare. “I felt so claustrophobic. It was terrible.”

He smiled again, surprised at how genuinely happy she was making him feel, something that he was unaccustomed to, just because he was able to fulfil her wish to visit a horse repository. “Then we shall go together to buy some horses as soon as we’ve visited your solicitor. And we shall instruct Ellis to straightaway hire grooms and a coachman. I might love horses but I draw the line at being the one to clean out their stables.”

Her eyes twinkled. “Oh, but mucking out is really quite fun.”

That one sentence had him hooked. He’d never in his life met a young lady like her. Strange girl that she was. His heart gave a little leap of excitement to match hers.

Chapter Ten

Having sent a footman with a calling card around to Fitz’s sister’s house to let her know they would be calling the following morning, Georgiana and Fitz, followed by a burly footman, walked round to see Mr. Wilkes in Lincoln’s Inn, Georgiana with a decided skip in her walk. If this visit to Mr. Wilkes had not been so necessary, she would have insisted on avoiding it and going straight to the nearest Horse Repository. Her feelings towards her new husband had taken a definite upswing since he’d declared his intention to take her to choose her own horses, and she held onto his arm as they walked with a sense of inner satisfaction. Perhaps her precipitate marriage might have unexpected benefits.

Mr. Wilkes did his best to hide his surprise, and what was probably shock, but she could tell he was busily calculating what he could get away with revealing about her finances to someone he saw as a stranger and probably didn’t trust. No doubt Papa had left him detailed instructions about possible pitfalls, which would have definitely included fortune hunting army captains. She was not a fool and had no illusions that her fortune had from the start been the driving force behind Fitz’s offer to marry her. But…he was very handsome and could be quite charming, and he had said he’d take her to buy her own horses… So he couldn’t be that bad, could he?

Not that Mr. Wilkes was party to any of that. Straight-faced, he forbore from asking any prying questions about her sudden decision to marry, but he must have been itching to know the details. So she kept her hand tucked into Fitz’s arm whenever she could and bestowed sunny smiles on both him and Mr. Wilkes throughout their interview. It was nothing to do with her solicitor what she did with her money, nor whom she married. He could be as disapproving as he wanted, but she was determined not to care. Although, had he known her secret, his disapproval would probably have reached gargantuan proportions.