Love & Folly Read Online Free Page A

Lizzie, Brecon can dance!" Jean was laughing heartily as the heir, looking pleased with
himself, wobbled up and down a few times on his still uncertain legs. They gave way. He sat down hard and
began to wail. Jean picked him up. Dickon, closely attended by his Aunt Margaret, was exploring the
wainscoting. He had acquired a fine coating of dust. I must speak to the maid, Elizabeth thought
absently as she rose to take her sobbing child from Jean.
    "Good God, what's this, a donnybrook?"
    "Clanross!" Jean and Maggie.
    "My lord." The nurse.
    "Oh, Tom, thank God you are come." Elizabeth ran to her husband. He enveloped her and the
heir in a large, rather wet hug--he wore riding gear--and smiled at Maggie and Dickon.
    "That's a fine greeting. What's the matter, my lady?" She blinked, momentarily confused. Now
Tom was home nothing was the matter. "Prinny cannot possibly divorce the queen. He has no
grounds."
    The earl's eyebrows shot up to his hairline and he grinned down at her. "And what has that to do
with me and thee?"
    Elizabeth flushed and laughed. "Nothing. Not a thing. Did you ride? You're wet with
snow."
    "And mud," Clanross agreed amiably, bending to kiss her cheek. "I'm growing too old for winter
manoeuvres."
    "But the carriage..."
    "I left it in Grantham and hired a nag. It was faster than the carriage. Otherwise I should have had
to put up for the night in Chacton." He had taken Brecon from her and was nibbling the fingers the baby
poked in his mouth. "Very tasty, Ba."
    "Papa!" Dickon beamed expectantly from Maggie's arms so Clanross took him, too, and they
made a circuit of the withdrawing room, his lordship with a giggling infant on each arm. It was all very silly
and happy, and Elizabeth, perversely, felt a strong urge to break into tears. My turn.
    After dinner she and Clanross retired to their suite. Elizabeth had had an antechamber made into a
cosy sitting room when she had finally agreed to live at Brecon--it was a splendid house but far from
homely--and some of their pleasantest times had been spent there, remote from family and guests and
servants with a warm fire crackling on the hearth.
    "Shall you have to go back to town soon?" Elizabeth snuggled close and began playing idly with his
watchfob.
    "I left Barney Greene at the house. He can send for me if I'm needed. I've a week at least,
Elizabeth." He pulled her closer still. "A reprieve, but I fear the next months will require my absence from
Brecon more often than I like."
    They spoke idly of absent friends. After a time Elizabeth murmured, "Did you send Johnny Dyott
to your friend in Hampshire?"
    "Yes. He rode down on Sunday."
    "Sunday!"
    "Perhaps he is beginning to kick over the traces at last. He won't take holy orders, will he?"
    "I don't think so. He has come that far. His father will be distressed, but really, Johnny would
chafe at the confinement of a parish." Elizabeth hesitated. "Have you considered that he might do well in
politicks? He is a personable young man."
    "And a Tory by temperament, if not conviction."
    "Does that matter?"
    Tom said slowly, "The thing is, he has ideals, and I'd be loathe to disillusion him so young."
    "He's twenty-five. Not a youth."
    "Except in his own mind."
    That was true. In many ways Johnny Dyott was an estimable young man, but there was in his
make-up a core of indecisiveness and deference that made him seem much younger than he was. She
wondered why it should be so--an overbearing father?
    Tom sighed. "Richard will keep him occupied."
    "I daresay." Elizabeth was not well acquainted with Colonel Falk, though he was Dickon's
godfather. She had met few of Tom's military friends. Sometimes she felt as if Tom were deliberately
excluding her from that part of his life, for he kept up the friendships. He didn't intrude his old companions
on her company. She hoped he did not imagine she was reluctant to welcome them. Almost she asked him,
but it would be easier to change the subject.
    He did it for her. "I've found a