A London Season Read Free Page A

carriage that day, except that of course it would be very dreadful to wish anyone dead in such a shocking accident, especially when one was sincerely fond of that person, but still, you can see where Persephone gets her wildness! Not to mention her fanciful nature — for was ever a poor baby burdened with such a ridiculous name?”
    “That was a sad day for us all — more particularly Persephone, despite her being too young to know anything about it,” said Sir Edmund quietly, remembering his dazzling cousin Jack: Jack, so uncritically admired, and so tragically dead in a carriage accident along with his young wife, fifteen years ago.
    In point of fact, the admiration between the cousins had been mutual. With no brothers or sisters of his own, Jack Grafton, heir to one of the premier baronetcies in the country, had spent much of his childhood at Waterleys. He and Edmund had attended Harrow together, and ne had passed many a school holiday with Edmund and Isabella in Hertfordshire, rather than make the long journey up to the Lake District. Sir Edmund allowed himself a moment ’ s nostalgic remembrance of those carefree days. And now, he thought, his and Isabella ’ s parents were gone, Jack too, and last of all old Sir John himself. But surely the saddest loss because the most untimely, had been that of Jack, whose daring, quicksilver nature had fascinated Edmund, and who in turn had known how to value his cousin ’ s agility of mind and clever knack of getting the pair of them out of scrapes into which he, Jack, had led the way.
    Almost with his last breath, as he lay dying by the roadside near his shattered carriage, dragged out of reach of the horses ’ threshing hooves, he had said faintly — though loud enough to be heard by the men who had run in vain to his aid — that he knew Edmund would look after the child. Edmund Grafton would not have needed this commendation from his friend and cousin to ensure that he kept a benevolent eye on little Persephone, but since his diplomatic activities kept him out of England so much, the relationship was necessarily an impersonal one. Indeed, Persephone Grafton was on his conscience, for he knew that her grandfather was too old and ailing to take much interest in the child whose mere existence reminded him painfully of his dead son. It was easy enough for Edmund to take care of the business matters relating to her upbringing from a distance, but he felt he should have done more. As it was, inevitably most of her childhood had been spent at school, with occasional visits to the Yoxfords in Upper Brook Street — although there had been none of those for the past two years. However, as Sir Edmund patiently explained to his sister yet again, the responsibility for Persephone ’ s welfare had always lain morally if not in law with Jack ’ s cousins, and now the legal guardianship of the Grafton heiress had passed to him, along with the baronetcy and the entailed Westmorland estates.
    “That ’ s all very well, but I am sure I did what I could to amuse her when she visited us last,” said Lady Yoxford, apprehensively, “and you know what came of that !”
    Her spirits visibly quailed as she recalled what she, like the Miss Maddens, thought of as the Unfortunate Business of the over-susceptible tutor. Since Isabella Yoxford ’ s spirits quailed easily, she did not stop to reflect that the circumstance was unlikely to recur, but her brother, swiftly calculating her family ’ s ages in his head, pointed that fact out to her.
    “Well, you ’ ve no tutor in the house now, have you? I know Charley ’ s at Cambridge, and surely Harry is away at Eton by this time! And didn ’ t you say, in a letter, that you had no plans to engage another tutor for Edward, but would send him to share lessons with the Barleigh boys? How old is Edward now — ten?”
    “Yes, and what with him and the twins, and little Maria on my hands too ... ” Isabella ’ s voice died away, and she sighed