To Win the Lady Read Free

for you girls? Where are you to live?’
    ‘Live?’ queried
Georgiana. ‘Why, here, of course. It is our home.’
    ‘Alone? It is
out of the question.’
    ‘We are not
alone. We have servants. And it was Papa’s wish.’
    The reading of
the will had taken only a few minutes and had shocked even Georgie, who was
used to her father’s idiosyncrasies. All Sir Henry’s assets were tied up in the
stud farm and he had left them solely to his elder daughter, just as if she had
been a son, and adjured her to take care of her sister, who was left only a
small annuity. Old Benson, who had been her father’s lawyer since time began,
had been embarrassed and unhappy, but Georgie had cheerfully told him she would
manage. And manage she had, but it was still a struggle. No one wanted to buy
horses from a woman and by continuing to live alone the girls had put
themselves beyond the pale as far as social visits were concerned.
    ‘He must have
been queer in the attic,’ Mrs Bertram said crisply. ‘How can you expect to find
husbands tucked away in the country with no one to bring you out?’
    ‘Aunt, I am six
and twenty - well past the age when I need bringing out,’ Georgie said. ‘And as
for Felicity, I shall bring her out myself, just as soon as I can come about.’
    ‘Come about?
What do you mean by that? Have you not been well provided for?’
    ‘Yes, Aunt,’
Georgiana said, determined to remain calm. ‘Papa left the house and farm and
all the horses to me. It is up to me to make a living for both of us from it. I
am saving hard to give Felicity a Season and a dowry, but when everyone thought
the war had ended last year the demand for horses fell. Not that I liked the
thought of any of our horses being killed, but...’
    ‘Child! You are
surely not trying to run a commercial undertaking?’ There was horror and
disbelief in her voice.
    ‘Of course I
am. How else can we live? Papa taught me how. Ever since I was big enough to
totter to the stables and sit in a saddle, he had me by his side and talked to
me about what he was doing. He has made me into a good judge of horseflesh.
Felicity manages the house and I look after everything out of doors. We have
been doing it for twelve months now.’
    ‘Good heavens!’
was all Mrs Bertram could manage, and again, after a pause, ‘Good heavens!’
    ‘I am going to
breed racehorses,’ Georgie said. ‘With the end of the war and so many of the
officers coming home, they will be looking for recreation, and as most are very
fond of a wager I think racing will take an upturn. Papa thought so, for he was
far-seeing enough to keep Grecian Warrior instead of selling him when he could
easily have done so and he bought a couple of good brood mares. You met Royal
Lady, didn’t you? Warrior Princess is her fifth foal.’
    Mrs Bertram
seemed to be beyond words. She sat and stared at her niece as if she had gone
mad.
    ‘We are
managing very well,’ Felicity said in defence of her sister. ‘Georgie knows
what she is doing.’
    ‘Give me leave
to doubt that,’ Mrs Bertram said. ‘She cannot know that she is condemning you both
to a reputation for being eccentric or she would not countenance such a life.
Eccentric women do not make good marriages - in fact they rarely marry at all
unless it be to someone equally touched in the attic. I should have thought
that you, Georgie, were old enough and sensible enough to realise that.’
    ‘What else
could we do?’ Georgie asked.
    ‘Sell up. Buy
an annuity and live in gentility...’
    ‘Sell Rowan
Park?’ Georgie exclaimed. ‘We could not do that. Papa would turn in his
grave...’
    ‘It is a pity my
brother could not see he had a couple of females on his hands and not boys,’
Mrs Bertram said with some asperity. ‘He always did treat you more like a son
than a daughter, Georgiana. I warned him years ago but he would not listen. He
said you would go on very well and there was sure to be a sensible, well set up
young fellow who