Woo'd in Haste Read Online Free Page A

possibility.
    “There’ll be time for that soon enough, Bianca. You’ll be off to London this coming spring.”
    “That’s optimistic of you, Papa, but I shall hold you to that.”
    “You’ll need a new wardrobe,” Lottie added, helpfully. “It’s never too soon to start planning for one’s first Season. We’ll have to hire a new ladies’ maid for you.”
    “What’s wrong with Sarah?” Bianca asked referring to the upstairs maid who also doubled as Bianca’s Abigail.
    “Oh you’ll be wanting a ladies’ maid who is well versed in all the styles and trends of the current season,” Mr. Dore interjected. “I know that my valet studied continental fashions for months before our journey.”
    “Your valet?” Lottie said sharply.
    Her question made Bianca realize just how odd it was that an impoverished gentleman would have a valet.
    “Mr. Bunbury’s valet,” Mr. Dore corrected. “Although he was kind enough to share Geoffrey’s services.”
    “Exactly,” her father said. “You will share Henrietta’s maid when you go to London.”
    Bianca had imagined numerous times what it would be like to go to London for a Season, but in each of those times she couldn’t quite envision it in the company of her stepmother. While Henrietta was unobjectionable, that was purely because she was so often absent. Even before she and Kate had begun their two-year circuit of the social centers of England, her father’s second wife had been nearly absent in Bianca’s life. Partly that was Bianca’s own fault. As much as she loved Thomas, she hadn’t wanted a mother to attempt to replace the one she had loved.
    Kate hadn’t had any such qualms. Naturally. How different they were. That two siblings could be so opposite had always puzzled and amazed her.
    But it didn’t matter. Nothing about Kate was her concern anymore.

 

C HAPTER T HREE
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    F or the first day after he arrived, she stayed away from the schoolroom. She wasn’t entirely certain what strange shyness had seized her, but she remembered clearly the moment their eyes had met during breakfast. She had felt . . . unsettled. Overly aware of him, especially as he sat beside her. Thus, instead of her usual routine, she crossed the fields on the southern border of the property to visit her friend, Alice Lovell.
    Watersham had always been a small community, surrounded by seven notable estates. Fairview, Hopford Manor, Sir Julian Lovell’s estate, the Buncombes, the Dunnetts, the Brooks, and a minor estate belonging to the Marquess of Penforth, which was rarely visited by the Marquess’s family. In fact, the only times Bianca had ever seen any of them was when they were all invited to a dance at the Fairview, which was the country seat of the Duke of Orland. The Colburns, on the other hand, had shockingly little of the superiority of other well-born families. Or rather, Lady Orland and her sons did not. The late Duke of Orland had been rather intimidating.
    As such a small community, Watersham was immensely safe, but it also offered a limited society of young women of a similar age. Alice was only a year younger than Bianca and, as a result, the two had become friends. However, they had such different temperaments that Bianca often wondered if they would have been friends if their governesses had not conspired to bring them together often. Even now, Alice was chattering on about the new ribbons she’d ordered from London. Admittedly, the red velvet would look fabulous on the chip bonnet against which she was holding it. It wasn’t that Bianca didn’t care about fashion. It simply wasn’t as interesting as a dozen other activities with which she could spend her time.
    “What do you think of John Dunnett?” Alice asked as she placed the ribbon aside and reached for the newest edition of La Belle Assemblee , which had just arrived from London that week.
    John Dunnett, oldest son of the Dunnett family, was a year younger than Alice and about to start