Carola Dunn Read Free Page B

describe it. “Dearest Aunt, you may just be right.” His smile was crooked. “However, it’s past time to put the wretched business behind me. I shall strive to become a useful citizen.”
    “That seems to be your best course,” she said, laughing at his dismal tone, “unless you can find an heiress to marry.”
    His fork half way to his mouth, he stopped with an arrested look. “Now there is a famous notion. It will take some time to set up as an architect, so I might as well look about me for a rich bride in the meantime.”
    “Why not? Bath was said to be a fertile ground for fortune hunters in my youth. The living was cheaper and the competition less than in London.”
    She was teasing, but the more Matthew thought about it the more it seemed an excellent solution. At worst. Bath would provide superb buildings for him to study in pursuit of his new profession.
    “And it’s only fifteen miles,” he said, “so I shan’t spend a penny on post horses getting there.”
    “You really mean to do it?”
    “Don’t look so worried. Aunt. I’ve no intention of abducting my heiress should I be so lucky as to find one. All fair and square and above board.” Well, nearly, he admitted to himself. If he was perfectly honest about his comparative poverty he would never meet an heiress in the first place. He’d have to put up a show. “I don’t suppose it would be possible to stay at Uncle Horace’s house on North Parade?”
    “He never goes there,” she said doubtfully, “since he blames the waters for ruining his digestion. Certainly they always made him bilious. He has really only kept the house because when there are no tenants I like to spend a few days there occasionally. In fact he was talking of selling it, and it is not let at present, I believe.”
    “Be a dear and give me a letter to the housekeeper,” he coaxed. “Is it still the same woman?”
    “Yes. She always had a soft spot for you and never fails to ask after you. Very well, Matthew, I shall aid and abet you in this horrid scheme, and we must hope that my brother never comes to hear of it.”
    “On the contrary. I cannot think of anything more like to persuade him of my respect for money than to turn up with a wealthy wife on my arm.”
    “Possibly.” She shook her head wryly. “I can let you have twenty pounds to keep the wolf from the door for the present.”
    “Bless you, but if I am to save the cost of lodgings by staying in North Parade, I can manage until quarter day. That’s what is so infuriating about the whole business,” he added with a rueful grin. “Uncle Horace is on his high ropes because of that wager—and I won it!”
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    The first thing Jessica did on their first morning in Bath was to send Nathan to obtain subscriptions to the Pump Room, the Assembly Rooms--both Upper and Lower, and Harrison’s Circulating Library and Reading Room. She would not for the world have him go with her to hire lodgings, or they would find themselves tucked away up a pair of back stairs in a back street.
    Having obtained from the landlord the name and direction of a reputable house agent, she and Miss Tibbett set off for Old Bond Street. The pale amber Bath stone of which so much of the town was built seemed to catch and reinforce the sunlight, a pleasant change after yesterday’s dreary weather. Jessica kept her hand firmly tucked under her companion’s arm, for Tibby kept casting longing looks towards the Pump Room as they passed. Indeed, so determined was she on looking backwards that they had a narrow escape from the wheels of a phaeton as they crossed the busy corner of Cheap Street.
    “You shall explore the baths to your heart’s content as soon as we are settled in lodgings,” Jessica promised, “if you manage to survive until then.”
    She herself found it difficult to resist the lure of the shop windows, but they reached their destination without further mishap. The house agent assured them that they