Chapter Two: Love Not at First Sight
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 1872:
A warm April breeze blew around the carriage traveling at a rapid speed to the countryside manor of one Lord Peter Thomas. Young Lady Maria Grey peered out the carriage window to gaze at the rapidly passing British countryside. It was a beautiful sight, but she didn't care. This early day in April was the day that Maria learned her father regarded her as nothing more than a piece on a chessboard merely to be moved around on his whim. He arranged a marriage between her and Peter. As for her future husband, Lord Peter Thomas was a fabulously wealthy man. However, he had a boorish, arrogant personality. He had a reputation with women, he was a womanizer in every sense of the word. And of course, he drank and gambled too much. However, he was wealthy enough that no one seemed to notice his flaws. For political reasons he had agreed to the marriage. Peter had ambitions of becoming Prime Minister and needed Lord Grey's support for such an event to occur. The best way to gain Grey's support was to marry his daughter.
Tears began to well in Maria's eyes as the carriage approached Peter's sprawling manor house, she couldn't believe she was going to spend the rest of her life with such a dreadful man. "Stop crying, you are going to meet your future husband today the least you can do is look presentable," snapped her father as the carriage arrived at the manor house.
They were soon ushered into the parlor by a servant. Peter was in the library in a drunken stupor, when the servant came in to tell him that Maria and her father were downstairs in the parlor. Upon this Peter cried, "I thought that was not until Thursday." Being informed that it was indeed Thursday, Peter quickly rushed downstairs.
Once he arrived in the parlor, he exchanged a few words of greeting with Lord Grey, he then turned to Maria and said, "Ah you must be Victoria, I thought you would be prettier!"
"Most people refer to me as Maria and I thought you would be sober!"
YOU ARE READING
The London Affair
General FictionIn 1872, aspiring writer Lady Victoria Maria Grey aka Maria becomes engaged to the boorish but handsome Lord Peter Thomas to save her family from financial ruin. Though clashing at first with the feisty Maria, Peter soon discovers that he is in love...
