The Lovely Lady Mannering

Chapter Two

(A picture of Lord Mannering)

Lord Mannering took his seat, his overly large figure protruding slightly from the sides of his chair. He smiled an eager smile before sitting down and I couldn't help but notice the overly grown hairs that were spread across his perfectly carved jawline. A mustache as well above his small but plush pink lips.
This man he must be well over forty, possibly! Although, he looked slightly younger and his handsome looks compensated him dearly on this, but his face did not seem young and fresh but more aged and hardened despite having these handsome features.

"Miss Clara, is it?" Lord Mannering says after he catches me eying him after deliciously chewing a piece of beef. My cheeks flushed a little.

"Yes, my name is Clara. My Lord, I see you are you enjoying my grandmother's stew?"

"Well, yes. It's quite tasty, I admit." He says with a deep bellowing voice. He straightens his posture to look at me fully.

"Tis said to have magic in it." I chuckled lightly, nervously hoping he wouldn't take offense.

"Mmm. It is so good, I might actually believe that." He chuckled straightening his cravat and then I let out a deep breath. The first real breath I noticed I let out since Lord Mannering had arrived to the small vicarage my family lived in. The strikingly handsome stranger somehow caused swirling sensations of nervous energy deep inside me.

Dinner was finished before dusk and I had a familiar and odd feeling of wanting to sneak out the back door to watch over the sunset illuminating the sky.

"I hope, that if it is no bother if you would allow me to walk with your daughter outside, perhaps in the gardens." Lord Mannering suggests, looking at either of my parents. His eyes were slightly going back and forth playing tag between the two before my mother finally broke the silence.

"Well, that's a lovely idea. You both may be excused." My mother says with a tight closed mouth smile trying to hide her true excitement. My heart was fluttering in my chest at my first time at even being alone with a man other than my Papa.

I led Lord Mannering cautiously out the back door as the sun was settled in the sky in the all too familiar place that I was so used to seeing it at. We stood there soaking up its greatness for a moment.

"How... utterly beautiful." Lord Mannering said under his breath after a moment as the cool summer night air began to breeze over us.

"It is." I said back to him in a whisper.

"No...not the sunset..." He trails off and I snap around wearily to meet his gaze. "Although, it is lovely I'm not sure if it is more lovely than the very sight that stands before me."

His expression was firm but soft somehow. His voice was level but deep and his eyes were squinting down slightly gazing upon me. There was a hardness to them but there was also something else there I couldn't sense. Could it be vulnerability? Men hardly ever showed such traits. Especially, with one whom he may of just met.

I knew Lord Mannering is hurriedly in need of a wife but considering all the prospects, a handsome male, slightly aged, in need of a wife and an heir, who had never been married, and he somewhat desperately showed up here possibly for my hand. Of course, I will not judge this poor handsome creature, but I couldn't help the feeling of something secretly sinister about the handsome Lord.

"My Lord, I must ask..." I say trailing off nervously too afraid of the answer or if he would or would not be willing to tell the answer at all.

"You may ask about me what you like. I shall be honest. As longs when it's my turn you may do the same." Lord Mannering said before stuffing his hands in his coat pockets.

"I should like to think, My lord. However, what I want ask is how-how old might you be?" I wince slightly and he chuckles. My cheeks blaze the color crimson. "I'm sorry, that was rather rude."

"No, it is alright. If you must know I'll be two and thirty next spring." My mouth gaped open for a moment too long and my eyes widened at the shock of the difference. This man is fifteen years older than me. That's old enough to be my Papa! well almost.

"Does marrying an older man shock you, Miss Copeman?" He says hardening his deep blue eyes deeply at my own. His voice had a different edge than before.

"No, not at all! Well- maybe it is marriage, ultimately that shocks me. I am a young girl. I-just..." I started to say trying to better explain myself as I seen Lord Mannering becoming rather impatient and his eyes hardened to a cold black.

"I have wasted my time. I should not have come here." Lord Mannering says clinching his teeth the look in his eye pierced me, but he said the words ever so calmly before whisking off into the night.

My heart, my mind, and my thoughts all stopped. I was frozen and my body and my mind refused to believe what had just happened and I just stood there dumbly as the only decent man that would ever marry me hurried away. What had I done?

Eventually, my feet turned me back in the direction of my family home and I trailed back quietly through the door with my head down in disgrace. What had I had done? Oh, what must I do now? Oh, surely that did not just happen. I thought to myself.

I entered the corridor to trail my self back up the stairs to the confines of my room and then my mother spotted me from the threshold of the parlor.

"Clara? What happened?" She said her voice held much concern but I just couldn't face her.

"Mama, I-I don't know." I whispered and tears slowly started streaming down my face. I quickly ran to my room slamming the door and locking it hurling myself in the bed in a pitiful mess before I could hear anything she had to say.