by M C Beaton
The rain began to pour down on the kissing couple, at first in great warm drops and then in a steady flood.
‘Come away immediately,’ said Monsieur Grenier sternly, drawing his giggling daughter away from the window.
‘Quite a goer is our Miss Pym,’ said the marquis in wonder, ‘and who would have thought an old stick like Sir George would have all that fire locked up in his diplomatic bosom?’
The watchers tactfully withdrew from the window. Benjamin lingered and took a peek outside and then executed a couple of cartwheels down the corridor before following the rest of them downstairs.
Two months had passed by the time Hannah, now Lady George Clarence, returned to Thornton Hall after a quiet wedding in a London church. It was to be the first night of her marriage. Benjamin had stayed behind at South Audley Street to pack everything up.
Hannah undressed with quick agitated fingers, feeling it all very strange to find herself back at Thornton Hall and mistress of it now.
She felt very nervous and frightened of the night to come but had been unable to bring herself to say anything to Sir George. She could not explain that she felt like a virginal seventeen-year-old. She put on the delicate lace-and-cambric night-gown which had been a present from Mrs Clarence, now Mrs Hughes, and climbed into bed and lay straight and flat like a patient on a surgeon’s table. She was cold with nerves. Her hands were cold and clammy and her feet were like ice.
Sir George came in and went about the great bedchamber blowing out the candles. He climbed into bed and gathered Hannah in his arms and all fear and coldness fled at his touch.
She awoke automatically early in the morning and climbed from the bed. She drew back the curtains and opened the shutters and stood at the window.
Along the Kensington road came the Exeter mail, the horses steaming and pounding the flat road, the roof passengers hanging on to their hats.
‘Come back to bed, Hannah,’ came Sir George’s amused voice. ‘You’re home now. Your journeys are over.’
She turned and smiled shyly at him and went back into bed and into his arms as the coaches continued to move out from London, along the dusty roads of England, to other loves, other meetings, and other happy endings.
By the Same Author
Titles by M.C. Beaton
The Travelling Matchmaker series
Emily Goes to Exeter
Belinda Goes to Bath
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth
Beatrice Goes to Brighton
Deborah Goes to Dover
Yvonne Goes to York
The Edwardian Murder Mystery series
Snobbery with Violence
Hasty Death
Sick of Shadows
Our Lady of Pain
The Agatha Raisin series
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison
Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
The Hamish Macbeth series
Death of a Gossip
Death of a Cad
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death of a Hussy
Death of a Snob
Death of a Prankster
Death of a Glutton
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Charming Man
Death of a Nag
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Dentist
Death of a Scriptwriter
Death of an Addict
A Highland Christmas
Death of a Dustman
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Village
Death of a Poison Pen
Death of a Bore
Death of a Dreamer
Death of a Maid
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Witch
Death of a Valentine
Death of a Sweep
About the Author
M.C. Beaton is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin, Hamish Macbeth and Edwardian murder mystery series, all published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full-time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now divides her time between the Cotswolds, Paris and Istanbul.
Copyright
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the US by St Martin’s Press, 1992
First published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2011
Copyright M.C. Beaton 1992
The right of M.C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–84901–916–3