Julia London by Wicked Angel The Devil's Love Page B

carelessly breaking the seal.
    My dearest Abbey, greetings and salutations. I had intended to visit you in America but received word of your father’s untimely demise just prior to departure. I am greatly saddened by the news, as I harbored the most tender of feelings for the captain, much like those for my own father, may they both rest in peace. I learned from Aunt Nan that you have gone to England. As business has kept me on the continent till now, I have not had the opportunity to see you as I have desperately hoped to do. However, I find my circumstance has changed, and I shall very soon be on England’s green shores again. I should very much like to see you, as there is much I would tell you. Hoping this letter finds you well, I shall look ever forward to our reunion. Fondly, your cousin, Galen.
    Abbey was thrilled with the prospect of a visit from Galen. She remembered him very warmly. The son of her father’scousin, as best she could recall, Galen, who was just a few years older than she, had spent a few summers aboard the
Dancing Maiden
. She had worshipped him; he had paid special attention to her, particularly on those long voyages to the East. It was Galen who had given her her first and practically only kiss beneath an Indian Ocean moon. She sighed at the memory, wondering absently why she had not heard of him in the last few years.
    She shrugged happily as she reached for the second letter, which was from a neighbor inviting her and Lord Darfield to Sunday dinner after church services. Delighted, Abbey returned word that if they did not mind, she would attend alone, as Lord Darfield was away.
    When Sunday came, and a rather plain carriage was brought to the front of the house, Michael still had not returned.
    Wringing his hands, Sebastian followed Abbey to the door like a fretting governess. “Lady Darfield, I would be remiss in my duty if I did not tell you that the marquis will not care for you dining at the Havershams’ without him. He was quite insistent you not leave Blessing Park.”
    Abbey smiled sweetly at Sebastian’s reflection in the mirror as she adjusted her bonnet. “I am only attending church services and a friendly dinner, Sebastian. He should not care in the least.”
    “He
expressly
bade me to keep you at Blessing Park until such time as
he
has the honor of introducing you!”
    “Ha!” Abbey snorted and turned to face Sebastian with her hands on her hips. “I am sure that if he truly wanted the honor, he would be here to do it. Really, he has no grounds to object!” she replied cheerfully.
    “I beg your pardon, Lady Darfield, but I must
insist
—”
    Abbey had already skipped down the steps to the waiting carriage. With a sigh of resignation, Sebastian stood beside Jones and watched as she chatted amicably with the Havershams’ footman, who looked stricken by the unusual familiarity.
    “She will cause trouble if Lord Darfield does not returnsoon,” Jones remarked dryly. He struggled to suppress a smile when Abbey patted the footman on the arm before climbing into the carriage. The poor man looked helplessly at Jones and Sebastian.
    “He shall have no one to blame but himself,” Sebastian replied with a sniff as the carriage pulled away from Blessing Park.
    The Havershams, an elderly couple with no children, were more than delighted to host a marchioness, and a pretty, youthful one at that. Abbey was delighted with her hosts. They were open and warm, and Abbey found herself talking freely about her life, the Havershams hungrily hanging on to each and every word. They laughed loudly as Abbey regaled them with tales of her year in Egypt, where she had learned the very tasteless belly dance. Pressed to demonstrate, Abbey reluctantly agreed despite a gnawing sense of impropriety, and by the end of the afternoon, Lord and Lady Haversham were coaxed into trying.
    When she returned to Blessing Park late that night—a bit in her cups, Sebastian ruefully noted—Abbey could hardly