Lady Annabelle was the daughter of the Earl of Havercroft, whose country estate adjoined the Mason property in Wiltshire. And if there was one member of the ton whom Reggie's father hated more than any other, it was Havercroft. Bernard Mason had bought his property thirty years ago when his fortune had been made, and had moved there with high hopes of moving also into a different world. He had extended the hand of friendship to his neighbor only to find that hand left dangling in cold, empty air. The earl had chosen not only to snub him for his presumption, but also to ignore his very existence. He had instructed his family and all who were dependent upon him to do likewise. Mason, not to be outdone, had first denounced Havercroft as a conceited fop and then ordered his family and servants never so much as to look in his direction or that of his wife and daughter.
The best families in the neighborhood trod the tightrope of maintaining civil relations with both their powerful neighbors without alienating either. But their loyalties leaned toward the earl. They paid him open homage whenever he was in residence—which was mercifully infrequently—and were quietly polite to the Masons without actually including them in their social life. They would mingle with him at local assemblies only because the earl never attended them.
It had not been a comfortable thirty years. Reggie had grown up in that atmosphere of mutual hatred and scorn. He had actually come to derive some amusement from Sunday mornings at church whenever both families were in residence. Masons and Ashcrofts occupied front pews on either side of the aisle and acted as if the other family did not exist—except that for the two men the whole thing was ostentatious, the earl haughtily contemptuous of the family that did not exist, Reggie's father loudly hearty as he greeted everyone except the family that did not exist. And his north country accent was always broader than usual on Sunday mornings.
"Eh?" his father said now. "What about her?"
Reggie snickered.
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