She woke to a shrill cry.
Anna opened her eyes and looked at white lace. On the pillow, hanging round her on every side, draped loosely overhead.
Oh, yes - they were in Edinburgh.
The bed was a four poster, curtains closed. The mattress soft, the pillows even more so. The most comfortable bed she had ever known. In this starched box of lace and cotton was enough light to confirm that it was morning.
The shrill cry came again. A bird on the window sill.
She sat, like a child again in her oversize nightie with loose hair, and pulled the hangings back. The room was full of sunlight.
Sunnie was getting the best of care. She was in Scotland for the first time in her life. And finally, it was an adventure.
The bird called again. Anna went to the window and watched it fly away.
Outside was a cobbled street with moderate traffic. Sleek stallions and beautifully groomed mares, cobs and thoroughbreds and ponies. Grays and blacks and bays and piebalds. Chestnuts and browns. She stood there for a while, watching the world pass by.
This was Mrs Jane Randall's house. Sister to Kathleen Rosewood but a different kind of creature altogether. They had met with a warm welcome, a filling meal and as much assistance as anyone could want.
She breakfasted early with Jane.
"We have plenty of time," Jane said, "but I thought you might like an early start." She gestured to the maid to pour tea. "Your ship leaves at ten, but the pier is a fascinating place. Edward and I visit regularly, just to watch the bustle and fun." She blinked, her eyes blue and sparkling in a face framed by light brown waves. "I envy you the chance to journey to London. My own season was here in Edinburgh. I've only visited London the once."
Jane took them to the pier in her own carriage.
Edinburgh was encased in thick fog. There was no difference between here and home!
It could have been Henty till she heard seagulls and the world transformed. Into something exotic, something unique. There was a brisk salty breeze, full of .. she did not know what - smells and unidentifiable sounds. And when the sun finally broke through, there was the ocean. A glowing, shifting spectrum of blue as far as the eye could see.
Anna caught her breath. She'd seen pictures, yes, but - waves swelled and crashed and flashed across the sand, and drained away in an instant. No picture could capture this.
They came to the pier in a glow of light amid a rush of hansoms and broughams.
Jane's quick eyes found the right pier. She gestured to a porter and gave the luggage into his care, then led Anna and Sukie along the pierside to an esplanade filled with people.
"It's so busy today!" Jane's eyes glanced everywhere. She raised a delicate gloved hand. A waiter bowed and led them to a sheltered corner. He brought tea and they watched the activity around them.
Anna sat with her back to the wall, ankles pressed tightly together. Watching her hands in their new white cloth gloves. She wasn't herself. Not here, not in this strange crowd with their incomprehensible speech and their vigour and their ruddy cheeks.
Everything changed when the first foghorn call wafted over the pier. A ripple of excitement swept across the crowd. Many stood and shouldered backs, reached hands for children or gestured urgently for porters.
Jane leaned forward with a smile. "Now we shall see something!" Her eyes watched the ocean intently. Anna shifted in her chair and looked across the water.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
The Perfect Finish
रोमांसGenre: Regency romance. NOT a bodice ripper. Anna and her father only had each other - until Mr Rosewood remarried. Raised in a man's world and an able partner in her father's racing stable, Anna's life revolved around training and jockeys and t...
