The Seventh Suitor Read Online Free

noting the frown on her sister’s face.
    “Yes, but you would like to marry, would you not? And now you have been made the butt of this joke, I cannot see who will marry you,” Susan sighed, her eyes sparkling with tears of concern.
    Kate hugged her sister and urged her off to bed, saying, “There is not a one in the lot of them I would consider, love. Perhaps I shall come to London with you, after all.”
    Susan did not manage to hide the distress this thought caused her in time to avoid Kate’s sharp eyes. “I am only funning you, Susan,” Kate quickly assured her, and smiled down at the bowed head of honey-blond hair. “I am far too old to share a London season with the likes of you, puss. Now run along. It’s late.”
     

Chapter 3
     
    Kate had the ability to sleep in almost any circumstance and consequently arose feeling rested, if restless. She was an early riser by nature and few of the household stirred as she swept out the massive front door and strode toward the stables for a ride before breakfast.
    When she was galloping across the south pasturage she spied a rider on the bridle path leading from the village. He agitatedly motioned to her, and she reluctantly drew rein. It was Wayne Norris, once again looking flushed and unhappy.
    She laughed as he joined her. “Wayne, I’ve heard the whole and I’m surprised at you.”
    “Please say you’ll forgive me, Kate. I had no wish to participate but m’ brother thought it safest if we both did, should our guardian catch wind of it.”
    “You are forgiven, Wayne, but how you should think he should not hear of it when he was present is beyond me,” Kate replied with gentle mockery.
    “Not precisely present, as you might say. He was rather occupied, you know. He takes very little interest in us unless it’s to come the heavy over some escapade such as this.”
    “Well, I doubt you need fear he will do so this time. I feel sure he’ll consider it quite an appropriate lesson for me.”
    “You mustn’t say so, Kate. No one holds you in anything but fond regard, and it is more than a pity that this particular episode should have occurred,” Wayne protested urgently.
    “Don’t give it another thought. Are you up at Cambridge now?” Kate asked, and proceeded to discuss his academic career as they rode along.
    Kate had spent most of the previous three years in a town boasting a Dissenter Academy and she was capable of maintaining a dialogue with Wayne on the nature of the studies offered and ignored. They parted genially, and it passed through Wayne’s mind fleetingly that he would not be averse to marrying such a woman as Kate Montgomery, jest or no jest. But he realized that she considered him a friend, and a very young one at that, since he was more of an age with her sister. Nonetheless, he rode off relieved that she had forgiven him.
    Kate had no further encounters before she presented herself for breakfast. Her father and mother were at table, and Susan grinned conspiratorially at her. Ralph had not put in an appearance as yet, and Kate suspected that he would not for some hours to come.
    Mr. Montgomery was genuinely pleased to have his daughter home; she was the only one who listened to his discourses on Thomas Coke’s methods of farming with attention and pleasure. He was beginning to fear that Ralph would never take an interest in the property he would one day inherit. At six and twenty Ralph had no more serious thoughts in his head than he had had when he came down from Cambridge some years ago, which was to say, nothing beyond horses, hunting, and gambling. Fortunately, Mr. Montgomery’s son was not always so unlucky at his gaming as he had been the previous day, but he was not always wise enough to know when he had encountered a Captain Sharp, either. Therefore, Mr. Montgomery, finding only one member of his family valued the knowledge he was acquiring and employing in farming, made no effort as some fathers might to stem Kate’s sometimes