Miss Lindel's Love Read Online Free

more arrivals floated up the stairs behind her. This was the first evening party of the spring and all the Pikes’ friends and the more superior of the parishioners had accepted the invitation. The winter had been long and dreary with endemic colds sweeping through the local population with extraordinary vehemence.
    Mrs. Lindel had kept Sophie at home more often than not, fearful of a return of fever. The weather had turned so brutal by the New Year that they’d been unable to go to even the local entertainments. Party after party had been canceled and even church had been a struggle. Maris couldn’t imagine why Lucy wouldn’t be downstairs, greeting all the people she hadn’t seen for at least two months.
    Lucy opened the door slowly, peering around the edge. When she saw Maris alone, she stood aside to let her in.
    She was dressed in her best gown, a sky blue dimity that Maris had only seen once before. It became her well, except for a small lace trimming that made her seem a trifle younger than her years. “Your mother sent me,” Maris said. “Everyone is here.”
    “I know.” She cast an anxious glance into the hall as she shut her door. “Maris,” she said intently, “do you think anyone saw what happened today?”
    “Only me.”
    Lucy put her forefinger to her lips and worried the nail. “What about the other members of the parish committee? They must have seen something.”
    “I doubt they took any notice, if they could see well enough to see anything at all. I’ve heard the punch flows with great freedom at their meetings.”
    “He didn’t seem the worse for drink.” There was still only one “he.”
    Lucy had been too shaken this afternoon to answer any of the questions that had leapt into Maris’s mind. Now she ventured one. “What did he look like, close to?”
    “I hardly know. Everything happened so quickly.”
    “You must have taken a good look at him when he held you.”
    “He didn’t!”
    “Well, ‘caught’ you then,” Marisa said, choosing her words with greater care. “You must have seen him then.”
    “I don’t know. I think ... his eyes were blue. The light was very bad.”
    Maris could only think that if she’d had Lucy’s opportunity she should have memorized every feature. Of course, she knew in a general way what Lord Danesby looked like. She’d been stealing every chance to obtain a glimpse of him for the past two years, ever since she’d decided he possessed all the qualities of her ideal. However, she had never come within ten feet of him. It seemed more than a little unfair that Lucy, who never would have thought of Lord Danesby if not for her, should have been the one to feel his touch and look into his face. If only Lucy had been a trifle bolder! She’d had so many opportunities while engaged about the parish to observe him closely, yet had always shyly kept her eyes down.
    In a few moments, after Lucy finished patting her hair into place, the two girls went downstairs. As usual the main entertainment was talking about absent friends and distant relations. Maris had never taken very much interest in the conversations of what she still called “adults.” But now, as Lucy drifted off to join the younger set, she found herself listening. As suddenly as a finger snap, what had always been background noise to her own small doings became intelligible. It was as though she’d woken up one morning gifted with an understanding of a language that had always been foreign.
    “Of course it’s his duty to the land to marry and found his nursery,” Dr. Pike said. “A fine thing if the title should end with him after existing so long.”
    “Yes,” Mrs. Harley said, nodding her plume at Lucy’s father. “A proper mistress for the manor would take a lead in village affairs, just as Lord Danesby’s mother did. Not that Mrs. Pike doesn’t serve us perfectly well...”
    The vicar made a placating gesture. “Ah, but people are more willing to follow the lead of a