Beatrice Goes to Brighton (15 page)
Read Beatrice Goes to Brighton Online
Authors: M.C. Beaton
‘So,’ said Lord Alistair when he was alone with Lady Beatrice in his town house where they were to spend their first night together, ‘who knows – we may soon be attending Miss Pym’s wedding.’
‘I would like to think so,’ said Lady Beatrice. ‘But Miss Pym did let fall that Sir George now regards her in the light of an old friend and Miss Pym thinks gentlemen never fall in love with their lady friends.’
‘You mean hate is more akin to love than
friendship
?’
‘So Miss Pym would have it.’
‘And are you happy to be spending the rest of your days with me rather than Miss Pym?’
She looked up at him teasingly. ‘Instead of asking me about Hannah Pym, why do you not leave me so that my maid can undress me.’
He gazed into her eyes and then said in a ragged voice, ‘Let me be your maid.’
She raised her arms above her head and said gently, ‘By all means.’
In a very short time, Hannah Pym, the matchmaker who had brought them together, was forgotten as they tumbled over each other in a frenzy of love-making.
A few streets away, Hannah closed her Bible and put it beside the bed and composed herself for sleep. Her thoughts turned to Lady Beatrice and Lord Alistair and then jumped away like a scalded cat. Best not to think what they were doing. Better to look forward to that journey to Dover, and then perhaps end her travels for once and for all.
Titles by M.C. Beaton
The Travelling Matchmaker series
Emily Goes to Exeter
Belinda Goes to Bath
Penelope Goes to Portsmouth
Beatrice Goes to Brighton
Deborah Goes to Dover
Yvonne Goes to York
The Edwardian Murder Mystery series
Snobbery with Violence
Hasty Death
Sick of Shadows
Our Lady of Pain
The Agatha Raisin series
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
Agatha Raisin and the Vicious Vet
Agatha Raisin and the Potted Gardener
Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley
Agatha Raisin and the Murderous Marriage
Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist
Agatha Raisin and the Wellspring of Death
Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham
Agatha Raisin and the Witch of Wyckhadden
Agatha Raisin and the Fairies of Fryfam
Agatha Raisin and the Love from Hell
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came
Agatha Raisin and the Curious Curate
Agatha Raisin and the Haunted House
Agatha Raisin and the Deadly Dance
Agatha Raisin and the Perfect Paragon
Agatha Raisin and Love, Lies and Liquor
Agatha Raisin and Kissing Christmas Goodbye
Agatha Raisin and a Spoonful of Poison
Agatha Raisin: There Goes the Bride
Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body
The Hamish Macbeth series
Death of a Gossip
Death of a Cad
Death of an Outsider
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death of a Hussy
Death of a Snob
Death of a Prankster
Death of a Glutton
Death of a Travelling Man
Death of a Charming Man
Death of a Nag
Death of a Macho Man
Death of a Dentist
Death of a Scriptwriter
Death of an Addict
A Highland Christmas
Death of a Dustman
Death of a Celebrity
Death of a Village
Death of a Poison Pen
Death of a Bore
Death of a Dreamer
Death of a Maid
Death of a Gentle Lady
Death of a Witch
Death of a Valentine
Death of a Sweep
M.C. Beaton
is the author of the hugely successful Agatha Raisin, Hamish Macbeth and Edwardian murder mystery series, all published by Constable & Robinson. She left a full-time career in journalism to turn to writing, and now divides her time between the Cotswolds, Paris and Istanbul.
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the US by St Martin’s Press, 1991
First published in the UK by Robinson, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2011
Copyright M.C. Beaton 1991
The right of M.C. Beaton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–84901–911–8