Midnight Bride by Barbara Allister Page A

shaped in a snarl. He was still concentrating minutes later when the bell for luncheon called them to the small salon.
    To Hartley's delight, Elizabeth Beckworth's eyes grew wide as he walked into the salon. She turned to her brother. Before she could ask him the question that trembled on her lips, Charles walked across to her. "Elizabeth, have you had a chance to renew your acquaintance with Mr. Hartley? He has agreed to stay on for a few days to keep me company." He turned to his cousin, who stood beside his sister, bending to kiss her cheek. "A guest adds spice to any gathering, don't you agree, Cousin Louisa?" He looked at his sister as if pleading with her to hold her tongue. Not pleased to have a limit on his visit, Hartley nevertheless kept his expression pleasant.
    "A handsome man is always welcome," Louisa said, dropping her eyes coquettishly. "I was beginning to wonder if I had bored all your friends at dinner last evening."
    "You, boring? Never! You are one of the most fascinating ladies of my acquaintance," Hartley said with a bright smile. He came up beside her and held out his arm. "Will you be my luncheon partner, my lady?" Louisa Beckworth fluttered her eyelashes at him in much the same way she had at her long-deceased husband. She took his arm, allowing him to lead her into the dining room.
    Elizabeth and Charles, used to their cousin's flirtations, simply smiled and followed a little way behind. "Thank you for not making a fuss about Hartley's presence, Elizabeth," Charles said so quietly the others could not hear.
    "Would it have done any good?"
    "No."
    "That's what I thought. How do you plan to entertain him?"
    Before Charles had time to answer, they were in the dining room with the others. Because good manners demanded they pay attention to the others, the brother and sister did not have a chance to talk alone for some time. Elizabeth was the gracious hostess, a fact for which Charles was profoundly grateful. His sister, when she decided to be rude, was quite formidable.
    Louisa was in her element. Her two "children" and a handsome gentleman who was not above flirting with her made her day complete. As Elizabeth watched her cousin with the younger man, she felt guilty. Louisa had given up so much when she had agreed to retire to the manor with her four years earlier.
    Because of her cousin, Elizabeth had been accepted by the society of the county. She sighed, remembering what the cost had been. Louisa did love parties and flirting. She would grow wistful when others in the neighborhood packed up to return to London, but she never said a word. Left a childless widow when she was barely thirty, she had spent her life caring for Elizabeth and Charles, selling her own estate to be a resident on theirs because their father had convinced her she was necessary to them; she did so want to be needed. Just when Louisa had been making plans to return to a more social existence in Bath, Jack had deserted her little girl. Since then she had been Elizabeth's constant companion and defender.
    Watching her flirt with Hartley, Elizabeth could not deny Louisa her amusement. She held back the sharp remarks she had ready for Charles and did her best to ignore her unwelcome visitor.
    Over the next few days she was very successful. She saw Hartley at meals and with Charles, but he seemed to recognize that Elizabeth preferred to be alone. After her stepmother's stories and the scandal that had awaited when she returned home, she had expected him to be endowed with horns and a forked tail, instead he proved to be pleasant. He provided interesting tidbits of gossip to enliven the evenings, never grumbled that he was bored. And he was always willing to visit the tenants with Louisa or play a hand of whist with her in the evenings for penny stakes more often than not. But even though Elizabeth admitted his good manners, she could not forget his reputation or the way he had taken advantage of Susan.
    One afternoon as she rode across