Mary Balogh - Slightly Dangerous

Contents

Y OUR CHEEKS ARE LOOKING ALARMINGLY FLUSHED, Christine, her mother remarked, setting her embroidery down in her lap the better to observe her daughter. And your eyes are very bright. I hope you are not coming down with a fever.

Christine laughed. I have been at the vicarage, playing with the children, she explained. Alexander wanted to play cricket, but after a few minutes it became clear that Marianne could not catch a ball and Robin could not hit one. We played hide-and-seek instead, though Alexander thought it was somewhat beneath his dignity now that he is nine years old until I asked him how his poor aunt must feel, then, at the age of twenty-nine. I was it all the time, of course. We had great fun until Charles poked his head out of the study window and asked usrhetorically, I supposehow he was ever to get his sermon finished with all the noise we were making. So Hazel gave us all a glass of lemonade and shooed the children off to the parlor to read quietly, poor things, and I came home.

I suppose, her eldest sister, Eleanor, said, looking up from her book and observing Christine over the tops of her spectacles, you did not wear your bonnet while you frolicked with our niece and nephews. That is not just a flush. It is a sunburn.

How can one poke ones head into small hiding places if it is swollen to twice its size with a bonnet? Christine asked reasonably. She began to arrange the flowers she had cut from the garden on her way inside, in a vase of water she had brought with her from the kitchen.

And your hair looks like a birds nest, Eleanor added.

That is soon corrected. Christine rumpled her short curls with both hands and laughed. There. Is that better?

Eleanor shook her head before returning her attention to her bookbut not before smiling.

There was a comfortable hush in the room again while they all concentrated upon their chosen activities. But the silencetempered by the chirping of birds and the whirring of insects from beyond the open windowwas broken after a few minutes by the sound of horses hooves clopping along the village street in the direction of Hyacinth Cottage, and the rumble of wheels. There was more than one horse, and the wheels were heavy ones. It must be the carriage from Schofield Park, Baron Renables country seat, which was a mere two miles away, Christine thought absently.

None of them took any particular notice of the carriages approach. Lady Renable often used it when she went visiting, even though a gig would have served her purpose just as well, or a horseor her feet. Eleanor often described Lady Renable as frivolous and ostentatious, and it was not an inaccurate description. She was also Christines friend.

And then it became obvious that the horses were slowing. The carriage wheels squeaked in protest. All three ladies looked up.

I do believe, Eleanor said, peering out the window over her spectacles again, Lady Renable must be coming here. To what do we owe the honor, I wonder. Were you expecting her, Christine?

I knew I should have changed my cap after luncheon, their mother said. Send Mrs. Skinner running upstairs for a clean one if you will, Christine.

The one you are wearing is quite becoming enough, Mama, Christine assured her, finishing the flower arrangement quickly and crossing the room to kiss her mothers forehead. It is only Melanie.

Of course it is only Lady Renable. That is the whole point, her mother said, exasperated. But she did not renew her plea for a different cap to be sent for.

It did not take a genius to guess why Melanie was coming here either.

I daresay she is coming to ask why you refused her invitation, Eleanor said, echoing her thought. And I daresay she will not take no for an answer now that she has come in person. Poor Christine. Do you want to run up to your room and have me tell her that you seem to have come down with a touch of smallpox?

Christine laughed while their mother threw up her hands in horror.

Indeed Melanie was not famed for taking no for an answer. Whatever Christine was doing, and she was almost always busy with somethingteaching at the village school several times a week, visiting and helping the elderly and infirm or a new mother or a sick child or a friend, calling at the vicarage to amuse and play with the children, since in her estimation Charles and her sister Hazel neglected them altogether too much with the excuse that children did not need adults to play with them when they had one anotherno matter what Christine was doing, Melanie always chose to believe that she must be simply languishing in the hope that someone would appear with a frivolous diversion.

Of course, Melanie was a friend, and Christine really did enjoy spending time with herand with her children. But there were limits. She surely was coming here to renew in person the invitation that a servant had brought in writing yesterday. Christine had written back with a tactfully worded but firm refusal. Indeed, she had refused just as firmly a whole month ago when first asked.

The carriage drew to a halt before the garden gate with a great deal of noise and fuss, doubtless drawing the attention of every villager to the fact that the baroness was condescending to call upon Mrs. Thompson and her daughters at Hyacinth Cottage. There were the sounds of opening doors and slamming doors, and then someoneprobably the coachman, since it certainly would not be Melanie herselfknocked imperiously on the house door.

Christine sighed and seated herself at the table, her mother put away her embroidery and adjusted her cap, and Eleanor, with a smirk, looked down at her book.

A few moments later Melanie, Lady Renable, swept into the room past Mrs. Skinner, the housekeeper, who had opened the door to announce her. She was, as usual, dressed absurdly for the country. She looked as elaborately turned out as if she were planning a promenade in Hyde Park in London. Bright plumes waved high above the large, stiff poke of her bonnet, giving the illusion of height. A lorgnette was clutched in one of her gloved hands. She seemed to half fill the room.

Christine smiled at her with amused affection.

Ah, there you are, Christine, she said grandly after inclining her head graciously to the other ladies and asking how they did.

Here I am, Christine agreed. How do you do, Melanie? Do take the chair across from Mamas.

But her ladyship waved away the invitation with her lorgnette.

I have not a moment to spare, she said. I do not doubt I will bring on one of my migraines before the day is over. I regret that you have made this visit necessary, Christine. My written invitation ought to have sufficed, you know. I cannot imagine why you wrote back with a refusal. Bertie believes you are being coy and declares that it would serve you right if I did not come in person to persuade you. He often says ridiculous things. I know why you refused, and I have come here to tell you that you are sometimes ridiculous too. It is because Basil and Hermione are coming, is it not, and for some reason you quarreled with them after Oscar died. But that was a long time ago, and you have as much right to come as they do. Oscar was, after all, Basils brother, and though he is gone, poor man, you are still and always will be connected by marriage to our family. Christine, you must not be stubborn. Or modest. You must remember that you are the widow of a