[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.At first he looked amused, but her genuine interest and intelligent enquiries soon won him to a serious discussion of the customs of the inhabitants of Spain and Portugal.Sitting close enough to overhear some of their conversation, Rowena was amazed at her cousin’s wide knowledge.With an admirable display of gentlemanly politeness, not once did the captain’s gaze stray towards the pianoforte.When Millicent finished her Pleyel sonata, he joined in the applause, then turned back to Anne.“Do you play, Miss Anne?”“No, I do not care to compete with my sister,” she blurted out, then flushed.“I prefer to sing.”“Will you grant us a song?”“I have never sung in company before.”“Lady Grove!” Captain Cartwright appealed to her mother.“Pray persuade Miss Anne to sing to us.”Her ladyship, flustered, glanced at Millicent’s stormy expression.“Oh, I think not.Perhaps another.Anne is hardly—”The vicar interrupted.“I, for one, should be delighted to hear Miss Anne.Her voice in the congregation gives us great pleasure every Sunday.”“Oh, then… of course.Millicent shall accompany you,” said Lady Grove placatingly.Anne had none of her sister’s graceful elegance as she moved to the instrument, but she held her head high with a youthful dignity that touched her cousin.Rowena remembered thinking her plain.She had long since ceased to judge her by her appearance, and she was astonished to realize that the severe hairstyle she deplored was very well suited to Anne’s fine-boned facial structure.Embarrassment tinged the girl’s usually pale cheeks with rose.The white dress was all wrong.In blue, or perhaps primrose, though she would never rival her sister, she might be passably pretty.Rowena sighed.There was little hope of colours for Anne until Millicent was wed.Millicent played the introduction to a Scottish ballad, and Anne joined in with the words.Her limpid contralto struggled against her sister’s deliberately misplaced rubatos, staccatos, crescendos.After three verses she gave up.There were tears in her eyes as she bravely curtsied to a scattering of polite applause.“What went wrong?” whispered Rowena as Anne sank into a chair next to her.“I know you can sing better than that.”“Sabotage! That cat played it all wrong just to humiliate me.I shall never let her accompany me again.”Rowena pressed her hand sympathetically, then looked up as Lord Farleigh spoke to her.“Will you play for us, Miss Caxton?”“You must hold me excused, my lord.I am not at all musical.”“To tell the truth, nor am I.” His lowered voice and conspiratorial grin invited her to share his relief.“Besides, it is time I dragged Bernard away.He is not yet in plump currant.”“His indisposition makes a fine excuse for you.” She smiled up at him.He was much too agreeable for Millicent, but already his gaze had returned to the golden curls and alabaster complexion.He had admitted to being less perceptive than his friend.She glanced at Captain Cartwright.His eyes, too, were on Millicent.However, there was a slight frown on his brow and Rowena did not believe it was entirely due to fatigue.At least there was one gentleman who was not blinded by her cousin’s beauty.CHAPTER SIX“The accounts, my lord? I’ll be happy to show ‘em to you, of course, but it’s not by studying accounts you’ll learn the land, you know, not by a long chalk.” Mr.Deakins, a small, grey-haired man with a face like old leather, sounded as despondent as he looked.“I realize that.” Chris was not impressed by his bailiff.“However, I must start somewhere.I’ve learned nothing from riding about the orchards, and I had some quartermastering experience in the army, so I understand accounts.”“Then you’ll understand, my lord, that I need cash to pay the harvesters
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]