Lord Dearborn's Destiny Read Online Free

kind."
    "Yes, yes, but surely one or two out of the crowd caught your eye," prompted Ellie. "Was there no one you found more handsome than the rest? What of that most attentive Lord Dearborn?" Ellie privately thought that no other gentleman there had come even close to the Earl in either appearance or address.
    "Yes, he was well enough, I suppose," said Rosalind, "though he did tease. Sir Walter Mansfield was handsome, as well, and not so difficult to understand."
    "Oh, my dear, Sir Walter cannot hold a candle to Dearborn, I assure you," interposed Mrs. Winston- Fitts. "Not only is his fortune smaller, but he has far less influence in the government. Lord Dearborn's position is of the highest, as would yours be as his countess."
    Rosalind's blush was visible even in the darkened carriage. "Mama, you go too fast! I have no reason to anticipate an offer from either one of them."
    "One can never begin planning too early for such an eventuality," replied her mother loftily. "No husband was ever caught without some little effort on the part of the lady. And Dearborn would be well worth any such effort."
    Rosalind lapsed into an embarrassed silence.
    To deflect Aunt Mabel's inevitable lecture on what was expected of her daughter, Ellie said quickly, "Let us not forget, ma'am, that the Season is only just begun. Perhaps Rosalind will catch the eye of a marquess, or even a duke, before it is over." Though Ellie could not imagine even a duke comparing with Lord Dearborn, she well knew that if one were to come along, a mere earl would be forgotten —by her aunt, at least.
    As she had hoped, this happy suggestion turned Mrs. Winston-Fitts's thoughts to the possibility of even greater future triumphs and she proceeded to enumerate the eligible peers that Rosalind had not yet met. As she required no response to her monologue, Ellie was free to let her mind wander for the remainder of the drive.
    Undoubtedly, many girls in Miss O'Day's position would have envied the beautiful, well-dowered Rosalind, but Ellie felt only a fond protectiveness towards her cousin. From birth, poor Rosalind had been prodded and moulded into her mother's idea of a perfect young lady of fashion, constantly supervised and corrected. She had never experienced the luxury of freedom, which Ellie had taken for granted most of her life— until the coaching accident two years earlier that had killed both her parents.
    For the first seventeen years of her life, Ellie had been at liberty to roam the rolling countryside, both in northern England, where she had grown up, and in Ireland, on summer visits to her paternal grandfather. In spite of the endless economies required to stretch an insufficient income, her childhood had been happy, and she had enjoyed the unconditional love of both of her parents, something Rosalind had never really known. Uncle Emmett seemed scarcely to notice his daughter, while his wife doted on Rosalind more for the ambitions she might realize than for herself. To Ellie's way of thinking, it was Rosalind rather than herself who had led an underprivileged life.
    Though she had grieved bitterly over the loss of her parents, Ellie could not really repine over her present position as a dependant in the Winston-Fitts household. Even as a poor relation, she lived in greater luxury than she had been accustomed to, and so long as she completed the various chores her aunt assigned her, she enjoyed far more freedom than did Rosalind. Because she had never aspired to the position and fortune that many girls hoped to achieve through marriage, the knowledge that she would now have little chance to attain them did not trouble her.
    Even as she thought that, however, Lord Dearborn's face arose in her mind's eye. For a brief moment, she found herself regretting that she lacked the charms to appeal to a man like him. Swiftly, however, she pushed the fleeting notion aside. He seemed most kind, and would doubtless make Rosalind an excellent husband. Surely it was