A Curious Courting Read Online Free

the ideal location for my hunting box, and it is apparently not in use. Sir Penrith informed me, in fact, that the land belonged to you, though it is surrounded by Lord Benedict’s lands. My purpose in coming to you is to ask if you would consider selling it to me.” Once again Mr. Rushton allowed his charming smile to spread over his features.
    “No.”
    Long experience with women had suggested to Rushton that they were inveterate talkers. For a moment he waited to hear what explanation she would make, what qualifying statement she would attach to her simple negative. Once a woman started to make excuses, there was always the chance of poking holes in her reasoning and eventually accomplishing one’s purpose. And if she did not essay into muddled explanations and excuses, she invariably fidgeted with her hands and shifted in her seat under his scrutiny. Miss Easterly-Cummings did neither.
    At length he commented, “I would be willing to pay handsomely for the land.”
    “I have no interest in selling, Mr. Rushton.” She rose gracefully to her feet and offered him her hand. “I appreciate your calling and hope you will give my best to Penrith, Lady Southwood and Cassandra. I believe Cassandra is the only one still living at Oak Park with her mother, is she not?”
    “Yes,” he agreed as he shook her hand before watching her tug the bellrope.
    “No doubt she too will marry one day and move away,” Miss Easterly-Cummings suggested by way of conversation, as she eyed him speculatively.
    Between Sir Penrith and his youngest sister there were three other daughters, each one of whom, as she had arrived on the London scene, Mr. Rushton had, for his friend’s sake, assisted to entertain. There had never been any question of his marrying any of them; they were not in his style, though certainly very agreeable young ladies who had the same sunny disposition as their only brother. Somehow Mr. Rushton received the impression that Miss Easterly-Cummings thought him a suitor of Miss Cassandra’s, and found him wanting. He had in mind to set her straight, but the butler arrived to show him out before he could think of a way in which to deny such a ludicrous notion. His irritation with Miss Easterly-Cummings perceptibly grew.
    “Good day, ma’am. I appreciate your taking the time to see me,” he murmured with a note of sarcasm as he bowed to her.
    She returned no response but watched indifferently as he stalked from the room. When he was gone, however, a grin stretched her generous mouth and a gurgle of laughter escaped her. Stuffy sort of fellow, she thought, and it surprised her that Pen should have such a friend of no recent acquaintance. Although Sir Penrith was ten years her elder, she had known him well some years ago, being the same age as his sister Maria. Dropping onto one of the gold satin chairs, she sighed. Five years ago she had known most of the gentry in the neighborhood well.
    The door opened quietly and a teenage boy stepped into the room. “Is something the matter, Selina?” There was the merest trace of a limp as he crossed the colorful carpet to seat himself beside her.
    “Heavens no, Henry.” Her rich laughter escaped once again. “I have had a call from a guest of Sir Penrith’s. A very stiff sort of person named Rushton. First he mistook me for my own companion, and then he was miffed that I would not sell the land in the vale to him. I suppose he is a suitor of Cassandra’s, though she seems a bit young for him. He must be all of Pen’s age, and what he would do with a merry little soul like Cassandra is beyond me. I can see them now at the breakfast table.”
    Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she enacted the scene. “Cassandra would be dressed in a round dress of jaconet muslin over a pale peach-colored sarsnet slip, made high with a triple fall of lace at the throat. A pure vision of the shepherdess with a leghorn hat (with a wide brim, of course) swinging in her hand. She would say,