Mandy Read Free

many friends already married and we have had our heads together a time or two.” She laughed at his expression.
    He made no response to this and they continued along the trail through the pasture, taking a shortcut to Harrowgate Village.
    Both were lost in thought and neither paid any heed to the beauty of the landscape. The heather was near its glory and its purple held a tantalizing scent. Harebells fluttered in the summer breeze and invited admiration. However, Mandy was too preoccupied to do more than give it all a slight glance. She was far more disturbed than her bantering had indicated. Her brother, the young baron, Edward Sherborne was headed for trouble, and she did not see any easy way out if he would not immediately take a stand away from their cousin, Celia Brinley. Knowing Ned, he would hope it might all fade away and not seek her out to end it.
    The young woman in question was a tall, elegant, fashionable (beyond her means), secretive and quite lovely chit. Their aunt and Celia’s stepmother, Agatha Brinley, had brought her to Ned’s attention, directly after their grandfather’s funeral, a little more than a year ago.
    Their aunt Agatha had inherited very little from their grandfather and being a widow of limited means, this had come as a blow. She invited herself to stay on at Sherborne Halls, in order according to her, look after the twins, who at nineteen did not think they needed looking after.
    Distraught and grieving over their beloved grandfather’s death, they had not put up too much of a fuss at the time.
    The time came, however, for Ned to return to Cambridge, but Mandy’s plans to be brought out by her maternal aunt had to be canceled as she did not wish to be brought out during the first year after her grandfather’s death.
    Thus, Mandy had remained at the Halls. At first she didn’t mind. She loved the Dales countryside and there had been much at the estate to occupy her time.
    As the months progressed, however, Mandy’s youth pinched and made her restless. When Ned’s term at Cambridge came to an end and he returned to Sherborne and began displaying an interest in Celia, she became concerned. It had in fact, gotten on her nerves.
    Celia gave him very little attention when he had been with them during Easter and even as late as two weeks ago after Ned had been home for some weeks, Mandy could not recall Celia in the least interested in him.
    Mandy had thought it remarkable actually, as most of her acquaintances and friends considered him a fair Adonis. In addition to that, he was titled, and would soon be extremely wealthy.
    The secretive Celia had few prospects with her small dowry and her lonely location in the Dales. As Celia had been unable to afford a true London Season, she had somehow (for she was lovely) been passed over for marriage.
    Such things happened when a woman had no dowry or entre into society.
    Mandy had noticed the sudden shift in Celia’s attentions toward her twin only recently. It was as though her cousin suddenly woke up to the fact that she could do much worse for herself than Lord Edward of Sherborne.
    This could get complicated.
    * * *
    Ned had fallen into deep thought. He and Mandy were approaching their twenty-first birthday. She needed a Season, but their maternal aunt was away and unable to give her one this year. In addition to that, he would soon have to take over his vast inheritance. Was he up to challenge? He hoped so. His grandfather had taught him everything he needed to know.
    Celia had become a sudden problem. He had as Mandy said followed her about like a puppy early on. However, he had seen her flirting with so many different gentlemen that he soon realized, she was not who he had fashioned her to be.
    However, she was older, seductive and had a way of looking at him lately that made it difficult to resist her company. He wasn’t ready to get married. He liked women, all sorts of women and one day he would marry, but he was far too young and had