To Dream of Love Read Free Page B

Bertram.”
    Harriet murmured an excuse and fled from the drawing room. In her bedroom, she twisted her hair up into a tight knot and pinned it securely.
    When she returned to the hall, both men were taking their leave of Aunt Rebecca, who was telling them the best way to reach the London road.
    “Do you come to London, Miss Harriet?” asked Mr. Hudson intensely.
    “I am afraid not,” said Harriet.
    “Then I shall …”
    “Bertram!” The marquess’s voice held a warning. “We are keeping the ladies standing in the cold.”
    Mr. Hudson threw his cousin a furious look before turning to make his bow to Harriet and Aunt Rebecca.
    The marquess bowed. “Good-bye, Miss Harriet,” he said. “Perhaps we shall meet again.”
    “I doubt it,” said Harriet wearily, remembering all the social snubs of the county. This aristocrat had obviously found his visit amusing, but he would not wish to return simply to see two such unfashionable and poverty-stricken ladies.
    He looked at her with something like pity, opened his mouth as if to say more, closed it again, put on his curly-brimmed beaver, and followed his young cousin out into the twilight.
    Harriet closed the door behind them.
    “There is a full moon tonight,” said Aunt Rebecca, “so we need not feel guilty about their staying so late. For a moment, dear Harriet, it was like the old days. Your dear mama loved company, and my poor brother, your papa, always had the house full of young men. It is going to be very hard to return to our old ways after such a holiday. Men are so
useful.”
    “Money is so useful.” Harriet sighed. “Come back to the kitchen, Aunt. It is too cold in the drawing room. All the heat still goes right up the chimney, even though it has just been swept. We have all those delicious treats from the hamper to keep us merry for quite some time.”
    Aunt Rebecca brightened. “There are even
two
canisters of tea, one India and one China. I fear the hamper had been given to them by whoever it was they had been staying with. I thought Mr. Hudson was quite taken with you, Harriet.”
    “Yes,” agreed Harriet, leading the way to the kitchen. “He had had more than enough to drink. Lord Arden took him away smartish to avoid any embarrassment.”
    In the kitchen, they set to work to store away all the groceries and meat. The bottom of the hamper was lined with newspapers.
    “They are quite recent,” said Harriet. “Only a month old. A newspaper is a rare luxury. There is half a decanter of port in the drawing room. I will fetch it, and we can toast our toes in front of the fire and find out how the great world is getting along.”
    Harriet returned not only with the port but with the blazing remains of the drawing room-fire on a shovel, which she added to the kitchen fire.
    “Do read to me,” said Aunt Rebecca. “My poor eyes are too weak.”
    Harriet smiled and smoothed out one of the newspapers. “What do you wish to hear about, Aunt Rebecca? The war in the Peninsula? The new regent?”
    “No. the social gossip. I want to hear all about the balls and parties and what everyone was wearing.”
    “Very well. Good heavens! Here is intelligence of Cordelia. It says: ‘Lady Bentley still shines, although our great metropolis is thin of company. At the opera, she caused more eyes to turn in her direction than Catalini. That famous singer was quite eclipsed by our modish beauty, whose shining hair, dressed à la Titus, outshone the glory of the Bentley diamonds.’”
    Harriet slowly lowered the paper. “Do you realize, Aunt,” she said in a thin, little voice, “that just one, just one tiny little Bentley diamond could keep us in modest comfort for quite a long time?”
    “Dear, dear, haven’t I often thought so? But you know, Harriet, it does not do to be thinking of such things. That leads to self-pity, and self-pity is such an uncomfortable state of mind, rather like the colic. My delicate nervous system will not stand self-pity or bad