Elin Gregory

Iiiiiiiiiiit’s Humpday Hooktime!

How are we all? Happy? We should be with the plethora of authors providing bits of stuff for us to read. You can find the big list here but I hope you’ll pause to read my offering first.

If you recall, Sir Anthony Stanton-Rivers had a drink too many and lost a jokey IOU promising the hand of his sister, Lady Cicely, in marriage to his pal Chum Armstrong, who also had a drink too many and also lost the IOU. Both Anthony and Cicely are startled to discover a notice of her engagement in the paper, placed by her new fiance, Sir Patrick Fitzgerald. Cicely wants to know what kind of man he is.

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No idea who did this splendid painting of Regency Cumberbatch, but wow!

“It could be worse,” Aubrey retorted. “What with Chum Armstrong and Rory Munro, we’ve had precious little luck with the Scots.”

They glared at one another for a moment or two then Aubrey continued.

“They call him Mad Pat, with good reason. I steer well clear of him and his set – Jerry Hawthorne, Corinthian Tom, you know – that lot. There are orders that he is to be shot on sight if he ever tries to enter Almack’s again. I believe that he did rather well at Cambridge but came down early, joined the Dragoon’s as a trooper, attacked an officer and was court-martialled. His family were able to prevent him from hanging but it so infuriated his father that he threw him out. You know the routine; a ticket on an Eastward bound ship and instructions to pick up his allowance from a bank in Bombay. So he went east to Indian and China and beyond. Lord knows what he did out there but it has left its mark. He’s older than us.”

“Well, he should know better then. What does he look like?”

“Black Irish, very brown from the sun with queer light eyes like a cat’s. He’s always smiling but it’s not always a very nice smile, if you know what I mean.”

“I can imagine,” Cicely said with a shudder. “He sounds awful!”

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Ah Cicely … little does she know ….