Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 385(@200wpm)___ 308(@250wpm)___ 256(@300wpm)
At the eight o’clock hour, Jane walked into the dining room looking sweet and graceful in a pale pink gown. If she’d gone gallivanting about the woods, her maid had done an excellent job straightening her up. Her light copper hair was smoothed into a crown of curls, her gloves were pristine, and no hint of mud sullied her hem. He seated her to his right side instead of all the way at the end of the table. Formalities need not stretch that far.
She smiled at him. She did not hold grudges either, apparently. That was a good thing for their marriage—and their disciplinary life.
“How beautiful it is here,” she said, as the servants bustled in with the first appetizing dishes. “It’s a glittering old place.” She caught herself, not wishing to offend him. “It is old, isn’t it? It seems to be.”
“It’s middling old, for these parts. My great-grandfather built it, to have a country home not terribly far from London. Much of my family is in Oxfordshire, you see, but my father took a liking to this place and put down roots here with my mother, modernizing many of the rooms and expanding the stables. I was born in your bedroom, which used to be my mother’s room, if you can believe it.”
Jane shook her head. “I can’t. I mean, I believe it could have been your mother’s room, for it’s very nice, but I can’t believe…” She smothered a smile. “I can’t believe you were ever small enough to be a baby.”
He laughed aloud at her droll expression. “We all begin as babies. A naturalist must know that. No creature springs to life full grown.”
“Well, there is a type of gnu in the African wilds called Connochaetes taurinus which can stand and walk mere minutes after birth, and run fast enough to escape a hyena by the end of its first day of life. The young of these herds have an eighty percent survival rate, compared to the more usual fifty percent survival rate for other African grazing species. Which, honestly, one would expect.”
He saw one of the servants nearly fumble a platter of sauced potatoes at this recitation. His wife noticed too and bit her lip.
“I suppose this is not the most ladylike sort of dinner conversation.”
“I only wonder where you’ve learned all these fascinating facts. Have you been to Africa, Jane?”
“Oh no, my lord. It’s such a wild place; I think I would be afraid to go. But I learn things in books I borrow from the Zoological Society’s library, and from my uncle, who has traveled throughout Europe, India, and the Far East. He has dozens of books on exotic animals, and as I read them, certain facts get stuck in my head. I’ve read extensively on African wildlife since adopting Mr. Cuddles.” She took a bite of roast wearing a dreamy look of recollection. “I love to imagine the newborn baby gnu outrunning a hyena, then curling up with his mother to have a nap. Wouldn’t it be so sweet?”
The one thing he knew about nature was that it was rarely sweet. She said gnu with a very hard g, the silly thing. Townsend turned his attention to the food on his plate, as once again, his wife had left him at a loss for follow-up conversation. After a moment, she turned the subject back to the house.
“My father’s country home is not as old as this one. It’s a solid, cozy pile of stones, but not very big. It doesn’t have a name either, like Somerton does.”
“My great-grandmother named the house Somerton because she thought it sounded elegant,” he said with a laugh. “You ought to see my parents’ mansion, the Lockridge estate. You will, eventually, because my oldest sister and her husband are planning to visit in the spring.”
Her eyes went wide. “The prince, you mean?”
“Her husband is a prince of Italy, yes. Although I have it on good authority he won’t ever be king, for his father is full of energy for his age, and he has three older brothers besides.”
“I’ve never met royalty except when I was presented at court, and I was so nervous about embarrassing my parents that I don’t remember any of what happened during the audience. It was the most terrifying day of my life.”
“Not the day you married me?” He winked at her. “You were afraid of me. I could sense it.”
“I am still afraid of you,” she said, and it was the second hilarious thing she’d said to him in the space of two dinner courses. They laughed together, and he thought, for all his misgivings, she’d not be a completely intolerable wife. While he might always carry a flame for Ophelia, he and Jane would find their way in this mutual journey, starting tonight when they went to bed together.