Miss Ryder's Memoirs Read Online Free

that he sat astride his horse for a full five minutes staring at her. I know, because I saw it all from the drawing-room window. Proper stunned, he was.” Milly sighed at this example of the most romantic of experiences. She’s a great believer in love at first sight, our Milly. There isn’t a footman who’s been added to our staff who wasn’t declared struck dumb by his instant passion for one of the parlor maids.
    “How very rude of him to stare.” Really, the man had no finesse at all. Amanda is indeed as pretty as a picture, if you’re inclined to admire the fainting, placid-angel type. All that blond hair peeking out from under her bonnets, curling down her back. No doubt she had heard his horse and was posing for him, in the event it was Jeremy Woods from over to Newmarket.
    Milly was affronted by my declaration. “Nothing of the sort, Miss Catherine! He was afluster with apology when Miss Amanda looked up and caught him at it. Made her the prettiest speech you ever heard.”
    He certainly hadn’t made me a pretty speech, the villain. Now I was getting a better idea of his vast duplicity. And that made me impatient to join my family. He might be trying to take advantage of them, even now.
    “That will do, thank you, Milly,” I said as she pushed in one more pin to hold up the mass of my hair. She loves to part it in the center with two wings over my forehead, and the bulk of it twisted into a flaming knot at the top of my head. Amanda professes to be very sorry for me for the color of my hair, but I would far rather have this glowing chestnut shade than her pale, insipid yellow.
    They were all in the gold drawing room when I reached it: Mama, Amanda, and Sir John Meddows. I didn’t realize at the pond that he was so large a man, quite six feet tall, I would say, with impressive shoulders. When he rose to greet me, there was not even a flicker of recognition in his eyes.
    “And this is Robert’s other sister?” he said, stepping forward to grasp my hand. “How delighted I am to meet you. Your brother is not so forthcoming as I had thought, since he neglected to mention how lovely were the three ladies awaiting him here at Hastings.”
    “How do you do, Sir John?” I withdrew my hand instantly from his warm clasp. It was too much, reminding me of him sitting there by the water, observing my naked body. I could hardly be so casual as he, though I eyed him quite boldly and with my most haughty expression. Which is not particularly haughty, I am told, after all. “What has brought you to our neighborhood?”
    He smiled pleasantly and waited until I had seated myself before taking his place beside Mama on the sofa. “Your brother Robert assures me that the best bred horses in England are to be found at Hinchly Farms, not five miles from here. I want to find a pair for myself, and he begged me to look out a new pair for him as well. Apparently his old grays aren’t so lively any longer.”
    Robert’s grays! They were Papa’s grays, to everyone at Hastings. And we expected them to live forever. “You must see that he returns the grays here, when he replaces them,” I insisted. “We’re all very fond of them.”
    “So your mother was telling me.” He crossed his legs and folded his large hands on his lap, though he didn’t look at all like someone who made a habit of morning calls or visiting ladies for tea. Every athletic bone in his body must have cried out to be away from there.
    Such a muscular calf as he had! Lord, I don’t think one of the fellows in the area could compete with it. And yet, I didn’t remember meeting him when I was in London for my Season. All the gudgeons I met then were the worst of the dandies, with their perfumed handkerchiefs and their dainty airs. No wonder I didn’t take! Who would want to take with a bunch of pinks of the ton like that? I couldn’t help wondering where Robert had found this man.
    “Sir John was telling us that he comes from Hampshire,” Mama