His Lady Mistress

38 His Lady MistressShe couldn’t hide from the truth.Lord Blakehurst, Celia’s supposed suitor, was her Max.Dazed, she let the book fall open where it would. The startof the Waterloo campaign and her father’s first reference to‘...my new Brevet Major, Max B. I shall not call him anythingelse here. His family name and degree have not theleast significance in what lies before us. He is, however, agallant lad, and one I shall be happy to rely on when wefinally face Bonaparte. I have good reports of his intelligenceand courage from his previous commanders...’That was the first of many references. Apparently ColonelScott had become very much attached to the younger officer.Almost like a son. She shut her eyes, remembering that tiny,dead baby sharing her mother’s grave...no, she mustn’t thinkof it, mustn’t remember her father’s return the next day...‘I think Mary would approve him and Verity would likehim. He has a gentle way with women and children.’A few of the things William Scott had written about Max’sway with women should have brought a blush to his daughter’scheeks, but Verity had come to the conclusion thatyoung men were young men the world over. And apparentlyall the women Max had entertained in Brussels had beenmore than willing. It did not appear that her father hadthought the worse of Max for his youthful sins.Hungrily she read on through her father’s account of theweeks leading up to Waterloo. Max was mentioned regularly.In the five years since she had first read this journal, he hadcome alive for Verity in a way she could not quite understand.She knew his expertise with horses and his fondnessfor dogs. She knew he hated tea and how he liked his coffee.She even knew how he liked his eggs and bacon. And thathe was perfectly capable of cooking it himself.Above all his kindness and thought for an orphaned childglowed in her memory...a gentle way with women and children...He was as real and precious to her as life itself. And the