Excerpt: Lady Farnsworth’s Second Chance at Love

Lady Farnsworth’s Second Chance at Love
The Lords of Midwinter’s Festival
©C.H. Admirand October 2024
Excerpt from Chapter One

 “I’m thinking we may need to exchange passengers between coaches at the next inn. What do you think, Nevin?”

Twin gasps had Yarmouth realizing that his younger sons had misunderstood his meaning. Before he could correct their supposition, his valet shook his head. “I’m attached to Thomas and Miles, your lordship. You may want to ask Petrie what he thinks when it’s his turn to ride inside while I keep our coachman company.”

Yarmouth and Jeremy chuckled. When Nevin joined in, Miles caught on. “You didn’t mean to pawn us off on some unsuspecting traveler at the inn. Did you, Father?”

“I would never dream of it, Miles.”

Thomas whispered, “You wouldn’t?”

“Never.”

“Then what did you mean?” his youngest asked.

“I was thinking that you and I could ride with Lady Amelia and her maid,” Yarmouth said. “Miles and Jeremy could ride with Petrie, since Nevin has announced it was his turn to ride with our coachman.”

“That way you’d be properly chaperoned,” Jeremy said.

Pleased with another of his eldest son’s observations, Yarmouth replied, “Precisely. What do you think, boys?”

“Would Lady Amelia tell me the story of Odysseus again?” Thomas asked.

Yarmouth’s heart clenched for a moment as he stared down into hazel eyes the exact shade of his late wife’s—a pure blue green that changed with Thomas’s moods, just as Winifred’s had. “I daresay if you remember to say please, she just might.”

“Let’s ask her.”

“When we reach the next stop—” The carriage lurched to one side as the coachman fought to control the team.

“What’s wrong?” Miles asked.

“Maybe something with the harnesses?” Nevin replied in a calm voice.

“Aye,” Yarmouth agreed. “If it had been a problem with one of the wheels, we would have tilted dangerously to one side.”

When the coach rolled to a stop, Yarmouth instructed his sons, “Wait inside. Nevin, with me.”

“Aye, your lordship.”

The two men exited the carriage, but before Yarmouth closed the door, he stuck his head back in and locked gazes with Jeremy first, then Miles, then Thomas. “Your word, lads.”

Receiving their agreement, he closed the door and walked to the front of the carriage, where the coachman and his footman were in deep discussion. “What’s happened?”

The driver motioned for Yarmouth to come closer. “One of the leather traces snapped.”

“I thought they were in good shape before we left,” Yarmouth murmured.

“Aye, they were, your lordship. Sometimes traveling at a brisk pace in the cold, damp weather weakens the leather.”

“Do we have a spare?”

“Aye, in the box beneath my feet. I’ll have it changed while you let Lady Farnsworth’s coachman know what’s happening.”

Yarmouth glanced over his shoulder in time to see Amelia stepping down from her carriage. He rushed toward her. “Lady Amelia, you should not be out in this cold air.”

She tilted her head to one side, studying him. “You are.”

“That is diff—” he began.

“If you are going to use the fact that you are a man, and I am not, I shall be taking tea alone with my maid at our next change of horse, which should be in about another hour.”

Surprised by her comment, he shook his head. “Will you ever respond as I expect you to?”

Amelia smiled. “I highly doubt it.”

He closed the distance between them. “Do you know, when I first met you, I was convinced you were overly cautious when conversing, and terribly worried about never doing or saying the wrong thing. Unlike your daughter when she played that rather difficult piece on the piano forte… Botheration.”

Lady Amelia smiled. “Persephone was not happy that I was going to insist on finding her a husband.” She tilted her chin to see into his eyes. “Is that what you thought of me? That I was rather inflexible and boring?”

“Not inflexible, never boring. Bound by Society’s restrictions,” he murmured. Reaching for her gloved hand, he lifted it to his lips. “But the more I am in your company, the more convinced I am that Her Grace is more like you than you would like people to believe.”

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