The fall into the ditch had brought it all back again.
Lucy shook her head and silent tears rolled down her face. She could never take his hand because of who she was.
Chapter 14
The next day, the weather still hadn’t improved, and the company stayed inside. Following Mr Fridolin’s example, Lucy went to the library. The duke’s collection of books was impressive, containing everything from musical scores to first folios of Shakespearean plays. She spent most of the afternoon browsing through the books, with no other sound in the library than the occasional flipping of paper.
After an uneventful supper, the ladies went to the drawing room while the men drank port and smoked cigars in the billiard room.
Miss Emma Stilton suppressed a yawn. “I hope the men join us soon. It’s so boring without them.”
“I daresay they have to have a smoke first.” Lady Conway fanned herself with a peacock fan.
“Dreadful vice, smoking.” Lady Rawleigh shuddered. “I don’t know what they see in it.”
Lady Conway agreed. “Conway told me he quit a long time ago, but I can tell he didn’t. His clothes reek of cigar smoke every evening. It would never occur to me to say anything, however.”
“How fortunate Ashmore doesn’t smoke.” Lady Louisa produced a sewing frame and made dainty stitches. “It is so very vulgar. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”
Interesting, Lucy thought. She could disillusion Lady Louisa; however, decided against it. Let her discover in her own time that she had the duke wrong. Lucy pulled out a book and read in the armchair, ignoringthe women.
“Must we talk about smoking? It is such an unrefined topic. Let us talk about something else.” Lady Rawleigh curled her lips.
“Pray, what are you reading, Miss Bell?” Miss Jane looked at Lucy’s book with curiosity.
“The Mysteries of Udolpho.” She’d picked up the book earlier in the library. “I enjoy Ann Radcliffe’s stories of terror and the supernatural.”
“Oh no, such tales frighten me. I wouldn’t like to read anything of the kind here. I heard there are ghosts in Ashmore Hall.” Miss Stilton looked worried.
“Oh, every grand house has their house ghosts. We have several.” Arabella replied cheerfully. “We have a white lady who walks on the roof shortly before an unfortunate event is to happen.” Arabella pretended to be unaware of the terror she instilled in the younger ladies.
The ladies gasped.
“That doesn’t frighten me as much as the graveyard at midnight,” Lucy put in, remembering an incident in which they’d snuck out at night from the Seminary to visit the graveyard.
Arabella grinned at the memory.
Jane shuddered. “Yes, but draughty galleries at midnight are also frightful. Particularly when the eyes of portraits are upon you.”
“Yes. Especially since you might run into the moaning man there.” Lucy shivered dramatically and wrapped her arms around herself.
“The moaning man.” Emma clung to her sister. “Who is that?”
“Isn’t he the one who got half-beheaded, Arabella?” Lucy flipped a page in her book.
“No, he’s the cook who got walled up in the Southern wall. Half-headed Joe walks in the East wing.”
Both Stilton sisters turnedpale.
Emma wailed, “How positively frightful! Isn’t our room in the East wing? I shan’t be able to sleep at night.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts. They are a manifestation of a befuddled mind,” announced Lady Louisa. “Reading books like that Miss Radcliffe’s excites your senses and causes you to hallucinate.”
“Why, Lady Louisa, wherever do you get those notions?” Lucy peeped up from her book with an imp lurking in her eyes.
Unaware that Lucy intentionally egged her on, Lady Louisa went on. “It is commonly known that reading excitable stories does not improve the mind.”
“Quite so.” Lady Bleckingham nodded.
