Taffeta & Hotspur Read Online Free

London … dull work?” he
quizzed.
    She wasn’t sure if she liked his tone
or the manner in which he lifted his dark brow, as though he didn’t
believe her. “Yes, dull work, when one considers what it is all
about—at least to a female.”
    “ How do you
mean?”
    “ Sissy will insist I put up
my hair all the time, and no doubt outfit me in the most
fashionable gowns and make me hold my tongue and ride sedately and
all manner of horrible things, and why? Because I must be paraded
and then sold to the highest bidder! Outrageous. The entire thing a
bore.”
    “ Perhaps.” He grinned. “But
I rather think all those things will bring you some measure of
entertainment.”
    “ No it won’t. The haute ton
my aunt so desperately intends for me to enter sounds a dim-witted
lot only interested in the cut of their clothes and the latest
on-dit.”
    He laughed, and she heard the genuine
amusement in his laugh before he said, “You may be pleasantly
surprised.”
    She considered this with a wrinkle of
her nose. “Do you think so? This is what Nigel and Seth keep
saying, so perhaps you are right.”
    “ Moppet,” said Lady Watson
with a shake of her head. “As though you have anything exciting
happening here in Nottingham.”
    “ But we do. What of the
Luddites?” Taffy bit her tongue. She couldn’t possibly tell Lady
Watson what was so exciting about the Luddite movement.
    “ Luddites, eh?” said
Tarrant. “We had something of a riot last week in the Riding
Country. It is a terrible business, and at present, I don’t see a
solution.”
    “ The solution is to pay
these people a fair wage. It is the only solution,” said Taffy with
feeling. “Shouldn’t England’s peers work in Parliament to do just
that?”
    “ Indeed, Taffy is quite
right, you know. It is Parliament’s duty,” said Nigel.
    “ The only talk I have heard
in Parliament about the Luddites is a heated desire to put them to
trial,” said Tarrant with a shake of his head.
    “ Monstrous!” cried
Taffy.
    She found Tarrant looking into her
eyes and was caught off guard a moment, but only for a fraction of
a moment when he said, “You must feel strongly. Your eyes are alive
with gold lit flames…”
    Was he actually flirting with her? She
blasted such a thought away. No, he was not; he looked at her like
she was nothing more than an ignorant school girl. She was sitting
and still managed to put her hands on her hips, “Of course I feel
strongly. We should all of us feel strongly. Such things should not
be allowed to go on.”
    “ However, they are too often
a part of life,” he answered quietly. “You are young and a bit
naïve still, and as I have no wish to shoot down your ideals, I
shall leave it at that.”
    “ Well, I am not naïve,” her
brother interjected with some vigor. “And my sister is quite
correct. We can not allow such things to stand.”
    “ Indeed,” added Taffy with
strenuously. “If men in your position worked to prevent
injustices…” She shook her head and saw he was staring at her
again. Was she getting through to him? Did he agree with their
point of view? Would he help them in Parliament? “Are you aware, my
lord, these people’s working conditions at the mill are not
bearable? Are you aware of the pitiful wages, of the dangers from
the machinery … the hours they are forced to work?”
    Her brother was clearly drawn in by
her passion. “Indeed, Tarrant, they are worked on better than slave
labor. They are starving, so they accept anything they can get, and
their employers take advantage of that.”
    “ Yes, I quite agree with you
… their situation is dire, but what they need to do is make active
verbal protest. I can’t condone their riots—the smashing of
machinery, their attacks of violence on innocent people. Good lord,
lad, I have even heard of a group of Luddites here in Nottingham
who meets in Sherwood Forest. It is said they have taken to robbing
the rich on the highway in the name of Robin