Lady of Lincoln (22 page)

‘Oh Alan, he looks ten years younger than when he came to Lincoln,’ Aurelia said to her husband, smiling through her tears. ‘I could not have wished for anything better.’

‘Not even Jennifer Cummings?’ murmured Mr Trimmer provocatively.

‘Certainly not,’ his wife answered positively. ‘And definitely not Annis Hughes!’ Mrs Hughes had congratulated the engaged pair in rather a forced manner, and had left Lincoln well before
the wedding, pleading engagements elsewhere. Mrs Cummings had taken Emily’s triumph in good part, probably reflecting that the new Lady Blades would be a good friend for Jennifer to have when she came out the following year.

Dr Boyle had accepted his disappointment as a gentleman should, even going out of his way to congratulate Sir Gareth, which kindness the baronet had acknowledged by thanking the doctor warmly and remembering at the same time to address him by his correct name.

‘You were very badly behaved towards poor Dr Boyle,’ Emily told her husband severely when they were on their wedding tour. They had travelled to Derbyshire and, climbing one of the hills there, had tried, but failed, to see Lincoln Cathedral on the horizon.

‘Yes, I know,’ Sir Gareth replied, pulling her close against him for the wind was rather strong. ‘He made me want to behave badly. Every time I thought he might lay claim to you, it made me want to think up another stupid name for him.’

‘Did it?’ Emily asked, her severity disappearing in an instant.

‘Yes it did. In fact, I was thinking up stupid names for him almost from the very beginning; so I must have known instinctively from the very first, that you belonged to me.’

Emily turned in the crook of his arm and lifted her face to his, so that he could kiss her. ‘The sky is clouding over a little,’ she said, as soon as she was able. ‘Do you think that we ought to return to the inn?’

‘An excellent idea,’ replied the baronet, looking up at the sky, then looking down into her face with a wicked gleam in his eye. ‘The effort of climbing this hill has quite worn me out. I fear that I may need to lie down in a darkened room.’

‘That’s funny,’ Emily replied demurely with only the tiniest blush as she took his arm and prepared to make the descent. ‘I was just thinking exactly the same thing.’ 

His Lordship’s Gardener

The Grand Tour

The Squire’s Daughter

Derbyshire Deception

Fallen Woman

The Wild Marauder

The Squire and the Schoolmistress

The Adventuress

The Other Miss Frobisher

A Gift for a Rake