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  THE PAINTER

  Silver Linings Mysteries Book 4

  A Regency Romance

  by Mary Kingswood

  Published by Sutors Publishing

  Copyright © 2020 Mary Kingswood

  Cover design by: Shayne Rutherford of Darkmoon Graphics

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction.

  Version 3

  Author’s note:

  this book is written using historic British terminology, so saloon instead of salon, chaperon instead of chaperone and so on. I follow Jane Austen’s example and refer to a group of sisters as the Miss Wintertons.

  About this book: The sinking of the Brig Minerva results in many deaths, while for others, the future is suddenly brighter. But it’s not always easy to leave the past behind…

  Felicia Oakes is the illegitimate daughter of… well, someone or other. A pirate, perhaps, or a spy, or a royal prince… who knows? Her vivid imagination conjures a myriad possibilities, all more exciting than her position as governess to two motherless children. But when their father is drowned aboard the Brig Minerva, Felicia must take them to their new guardian in the North of England, where her life is about to be turned upside down.

  The Earl of Finlassan has turned his back on the world to pursue his art, and the prospective guardianship of two young girls horrifies him. He soon finds that it’s not his wards who unsettle his life, it’s their governess, who is irritatingly impertinent with a distractingly mischievous smile. Gradually he finds himself drawn out of seclusion by his new muse. But when danger strikes, they will have to uncover the past before they can look to the future.

  This is a complete story with a HEA. Book 4 of a 6 book series. A traditional Regency romance, drawing room rather than bedroom.

  Isn’t that what’s-his-name? Regular readers will know that characters from previous books occasionally pop up. None actually appear in this one, but there are mentions of Sir James and Lady Godney, from The Widow, and the Narfields, from The Apothecary. There is also a mention of one who dates right back to The Daughters of Allamont Hall. The Earl of Strathmorran lives in Scotland, at Glenbrindle Castle in the mythical county of Morranshire. His heir, Lord Kilbraith, a cousin to the Allamont sisters, made a romantic appearance in Dulcie, and turned up again in Lord Humphrey. Congratulations to anyone who spotted this reference.

  About the Silver Linings Mysteries series: John Milton coined the phrase 'silver lining' in Comus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634

  Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud

  Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

  I did not err; there does a sable cloud

  Turn forth her silver lining on the night,

  And casts a gleam over this tufted grove.

  Ever since then, the term ‘silver lining’ has become synonymous with the unexpected benefits arising from disaster. The sinking of the Brig Minerva results in many deaths, but for others, the future is suddenly brighter. But it’s not always easy to leave the past behind…

  Book 0: The Clerk: the sinking of the Minerva offers a young man a new life (a novella, free to mailing list subscribers).

  Book 1: The Widow: the wife of the Minerva’s captain is free from his cruelty, but can she learn to trust again?

  Book 2: The Lacemaker: three sisters inherit a country cottage, but the locals are surprisingly interested in them.

  Book 3: The Apothecary: a long-forgotten suitor returns, now a rich man, but is he all he seems?

  Book 4: The Painter: two children are left to the care of a reclusive man.

  Book 5: The Orphan: a wilful heiress is determined to choose a notorious rake as her guardian.

  Book 6: The Duke: the heir to the dukedom is reluctant to step into his dead brother’s shoes and accept his arranged marriage.

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  Table of Contents

  The Warborough Family

  The Buckley and Dulnain Families

  Prologue: Miss Latimer's Academy

  1: Summer Cottage (March)

  2: A Post-Chaise And Four (April)

  3: Hawkewood Hall

  4: The Painter

  5: Settling In (May)

  6: Shotterbourne

  7: The Heir

  8: An Invitation

  9: Dinner At Compton House (June)

  10: A Painting Expedition

  11: St Oswald's Church

  12: The Muse

  13: Morning Service At St Miriam's

  14: Dinner At Shotterbourne

  15: A Paid Employee

  16: A Day In Derby

  17: Flowers And Friendship (July)

  18: Forgiveness

  19: Old Friends

  20: Boscobel Cottage (August)

  21: A New Home

  22: Mysteries

  23: Sermons And Lectures

  24: In Pursuit

  25: Running Away

  26: An Unexpected Visit (September)

  27: Revelations

  28: Reunions

  Epilogue (October)

  Thanks for reading!

  About the author

  Acknowledgements

  Sneak preview of The Orphan: Chapter 1: In Want Of A Guardian (March)

  The Warborough Family

  Hi-res version available here.

  The Buckley and Dulnain Families

  Hi-res version available here.

  Prologue: Miss Latimer's Academy

  FOUR YEARS EARLIER

  Felicia gazed at her work with a critical eye. The faces… yes, she thought she had contrived them rather well, all things considered. And the trees… she had always been good at trees and flowers and curvaceous smears of colour. But the cottages! How was it that simple straight lines gave her so much trouble? The honeysuckle growing around the door was as realistic as any she had drawn, but the poor cottage itself looked as if a puff of wind would see it off. The walls were crooked, the window frames askew and the chimney pots tilting. The smoke— yes, the smoke needed something.

  She reached for a stick of the palest grey, and blended it into the drifting cloud emerging from the chimney. Then some darker grey, a little white, and just a touch of black, smudging the colours together with her thumb so that they mingled and merged. Another stroke of white just there… Smoke and clouds were so satisfactory with pastels. It was hard to go wrong, in truth. But walls…

  There was no sound, but she became aware of someone behind her. Miss Gertrude, of course. No one else had quite such an uncanny ability to sneak up noiselessly behind a person. No, that was unfair, for she had no intention of sneaking. It was just her way.

  Felicia reached for a cloth to wipe her hands, and turned with a smile. “Miss Gertrude? Have you an errand for me?”

  “You’re wanted in the Principal’s room.”

  “At once? Then I shall wash the dust off my hands.”

  “Nasty, messy stuff, those pastel sticks,” Miss Gertrude said with a sniff. “I can’t see why you don’t stick to watercolours like a proper lady.”

  “Perhaps because I am not a proper lady,” Felicia said, as she poured water from the ewer into a basin. “I am only… oh, a pirate’s daughter, I think, abandoned at port in my cradle when he had to escape the Excise men in rather a hurry. He will come back for me one day. My mother was a Persian princess he captured, whose father offered a fortune for her safe return, but my father had fallen in love with her and married her by then. I expect she died of grief when I was left behind. There! I am a trifle cleaner, I believe.”

  “You and your stories,” Miss Gertrude said sourly, turning to stalk away. “Pirates and Persian princesses! Ha!”

  Felicia chuckled at her receding back, and ran li
ghtly after her, down a floor to the main teaching rooms. The Latimer Academy for Young Ladies was a respected institution, where girls from twelve to eighteen could learn the feminine arts of French or Italian, music and singing, the management of household accounts, sewing, dancing and deportment, and a little history and knowledge of the world as an aid to conversation, but not so much as to deter potential husbands. Heaven forfend that they should be turned into blue-stockings! After which, they would be fired off into society and expected to make good, or at least respectable, marriages and bring honour upon their families. Felicia sincerely pitied them.

  On the ground floor was the dancing room, where the rather fraught dancing master was attempting to instil gracefulness into a small group who seemed determined to bump into each other and then collapse into giggles, while Miss Mason banged away determinedly on the pianoforte. Felicia smiled, and executed a few steps of the cotillion as she passed through the hall in Miss Gertrude’s wake, her skirts flaring around her as she twirled. Oh, to dance and lose herself in the music! It was a long, long ten days until the next assembly, and she had her gown and hair ornaments already planned. And this time, she was determined, Jane would dance every set and enjoy herself. She was coming along so well, and in another few months, her shyness would be almost unnoticeable in company.

  Across the hall were the domestic offices, where Miss Latimer had her study. Unusually, she was not seated at her desk when Felicia entered. Instead, she stood at the window gazing out into Bugle Street, one of Southampton’s most salubrious thoroughfares.

  “Miss Oakes is here, sister,” Miss Gertrude said. She never called Felicia anything else, conveying her distaste for her by means of rigid formality.

  “Ah, Felicia. Do sit down.” Miss Latimer settled into her seat behind the desk and Miss Gertrude took up her usual position, standing a little behind her sister, hands clasped before her, an expression of displeasure on her face, as if she had trodden in something unsavoury. The two sisters were as unlike as could be, Miss Latimer as round and soft as a floured dumpling, and Miss Gertrude as thin and sharp as a spear.

  Felicia took the chair in front of the desk, and waited expectantly.

  “I have had…” Miss Latimer began, then halted with uncharacteristic hesitancy.

  “Yes?” Felicia said.

  “A letter,” Miss Latimer went on, more strongly, picking up a paper that lay on the desk. “A proposal, if you like. A gentleman wishes to engage a governess for his two daughters.”

  “A governess!” Felicia burst out. “I am hardly qualified—” A shiver passed down her spine, but whether of fear or anticipation was more than she could determine. A governess lived the most miserable life on earth, neither gentry nor servant but abused by all, and yet… to leave Southampton, perhaps, and see a little of the world beyond… that would be something!

  “Hear me out,” Miss Latimer said. “It is… a most unusual case. He is a married man, but he took a mistress who gave him two children, and he seems to have cared greatly for them. They have been well provided for, at all events. The mistress has recently died, and now he wishes to engage a governess for his natural daughters. And here is the interesting part, Felicia. He insists that the governess must be an artist, and her primary role is to nurture the creative talents of the children. His mistress was a talented painter, it seems, and he hopes to see that ability transferred to her offspring. You can see why our thoughts turned at once to you.”

  “Does he know that I am only eighteen?”

  “Oh yes, and that does not weigh with him. He believes you may be suitable, despite your youth.”

  “But I have neither the aptitude nor the desire to be a governess. I am perfectly content here with you until I reach my majority, and I had always supposed you to be satisfied with my accomplishments here.”

  “Oh, indeed! Very satisfied, dear Felicia! We do not wish you to leave, no, no, no! Not in the least. But… there is just the tiniest problem. Mr and Mrs Pollard.”

  “Have they complained about the instruction I provide Jane? Her drawing is coming on apace, and I still have hopes of improvement in watercolours, too.”

  “It is not that,” Miss Latimer said hastily. “It is… oh, Felicia, you are too friendly with Jane, and that is the truth of the matter.”

  “Who could not be friendly towards her, so sweet as she is!” Felicia said with some heat. “She is the most charming girl.”

  “Of course,” Miss Latimer said. “No one doubts your sincerity or your good intentions, and Jane has come on tremendously under your tutelage, as I have tried to explain to Mr and Mrs Pollard. But they have heard rumours of your attendance at the assemblies, and they are concerned. Jane was seen dancing with an apprentice. Mrs Pollard is rather upset.”

  “He was a ship owner’s clerk, and perfectly respectable,” Felicia said sharply. “He was even shyer than Jane, and it had taken him half the evening to gather his courage sufficiently to ask for an introduction. You would hardly have wished her to snub him. Why, he would have been crushed! And it was so good for her, since she had to exert herself to make all the conversation.”

  “But hardly a suitable person for her to be acquainted with,” Miss Gertrude said reprovingly.

  “Miss Mason was chaperoning us, and she made no objection,” Felicia retorted. “Besides, if Jane must dance only with persons her mother regards as suitable, she will not dance at all. It is better for her to overcome her shyness here in our quiet provincial backwater than in the full glare of the London season, and that strategy was agreed with the Pollards from the outset.”

  “Oh yes, but you are so lively and so pretty, Felicia, that Jane cannot show to advantage. And… and…” Miss Latimer hung her head shamefacedly, then, with a long intake of breath, she went on, “There is your lack of connections.”

  “You mean that I am a bastard and an orphan?” she said mischievously, setting Miss Latimer twittering in distress. Felicia was amused, for she had long since ceased to regard her ancestry with dismay. “The Pollards may be only an inch away from trade, but they are more respectable than I am, certainly.”

  “They are very wealthy, and Mrs Pollard, at least, has some excellent connections. They have ambitions for Jane. In fact, it is their cherished hope that she might make an impression on the Marquess of Beckhampton when she is out.”

  “Beckhampton? Wait, is that the heir to the Duke of Falconbury? That will never fly! I cannot see retiring little Jane ever wanting to marry a duke, even supposing she should meet him.”

  “What she wants is neither here nor there,” Miss Gertrude said abruptly. “It’s for her parents to say whom she marries, a great heiress like her, and they are acquainted with the duke, so it’s perfectly possible, whatever you may say about it, Miss Oakes.”

  “Well, if she likes him and he is worthy of her, I wish them both joy, I am sure,” Felicia said. “But what is that to do with me? You want me to give up accompanying Jane to the assemblies, I gather.”

  Miss Latimer flushed bright red. “I rather fear it is more complicated than that, my dear. Mr and Mrs Pollard are hinting that they will remove Jane from our care, and as you know—”

  “Yes, yes, all the extras, and it is so good for your reputation.”

  “That is why this proposal from Mr Kearney is so fortuitous. For him, your… your lack of connections is no obstacle, but a positive benefit.”

  “Oh certainly,” Felicia cried, “for who better to educate two bastards than another bastard.” She chuckled merrily.

  “Felicia!” Miss Latimer cried distressfully.

  “I beg your pardon — I could not resist.”

  “You do not know that you are a… a natural daughter, after all.”

  “I know nothing,” Felicia said sourly. “It is a reasonable deduction, though, for why send away a legitimate child? Never mind. Where is this position as governess?”

  “At Itchen, just across the river,” Miss Latimer said, latching eagerly onto the ha
ppier topic. “Near enough that we might see you sometimes. It will not be for ever, as they will be going to school as soon as they are old enough and will have no need of a governess. Will you at least consider it? Mr Kearney will be here again on Thursday, so you may speak to him about the position then.”

  “Of course I will consider it,” Felicia said gently, and was rewarded by seeing Miss Latimer’s clouded face lighten a little. “I do not wish to be the means whereby you lose your most profitable pupil.”

  “We do not wish to lose you, either,” Miss Latimer said, “but you do see how it is, I am sure.”

  “Oh yes. Either I go or Jane goes. That is perfectly clear.” Miss Latimer protested, but Felicia only laughed. “Do not distress yourself. It is only three years before I come into my inheritance, after all, so why should I not while away that time as a governess?”

  “There! I knew you would see the bright side,” Miss Latimer said happily.

  ~~~~~

  Philip Kearney was a handsome man, dressed in a casually expensive style with no great pretensions to fashion, and all in black, with crepe on his hat. He was perhaps forty, with a little grey beginning to show in his hair, but with none of the signs of over-indulgence so common in men of that age. There was an easy charm to his manner which would make him something of a danger to susceptible women. He was an architect, he told Felicia when they met in Miss Latimer’s office under the hawk-like eyes of Miss Gertrude, and his work required him to travel here and there, but he had his main office in Liverpool.

  “That is where my wife lives,” he said. “Since it was her money and connections that established my career, I still keep a base there, but my heart has long been here in Southampton, in the Itchen village cottage.” He paused for a moment, his grief obvious. After a moment, he composed himself and went on, “You know of my great loss. My beloved Juliana was a woman below notice in the eyes of the world, but to me she was everything. Now that we are separated in this life, our two little girls fall to my sole care. Miss Oakes, I do not expect you to love my daughters, for that responsibility lies with me, and a welcome one it is. My only requirement is for them to receive a little learning, and an encouragement to develop whatever of artistic talent they may have inherited. Their mother was a painter of great ability, and I would not see her daughters denied their chance to follow her example.”