A Certain Magic Read Online Free PDF

mother doesn’t know quite how to loose her, having spent the last dozen years or more rusticating somewhere. I am to be the entrance door, so it seems. The letter was larded with compliments, as you may imagine.”
    “You are to introduce the girl into society?” Alice said.
    “Be careful you don’t choke on your cake,” he said, looking at her assessingly. “I told you this was vastly amusing, did I not? And I have not got to the funny part yet.” He looked down at the plate of cakes and up at her in some amusement. “You might as well have it, Allie. You have been wanting it since the plate was set down before you.” He reached out, picked up a pastry that looked to be all air and cream, and set it down on her plate.
    “Piers!” she said indignantly. “I have not glanced at it even once.”
    “Eat it anyway,” he said. “It would be a shame to waste it. Lady Margam is staying with her brother on Russell Square. I called on them this morning. I have never been so diverted in my life.”
    He grinned at his memories and watched her take the first bite out of the pastry.
    “He is a cit,” he said, “and quite as vulgar as they come. He has about as much subtlety as a ten ton boulder. He wants me to marry the girl, of course.”
    “Did he say so?” Alice was caught with the pastry halfway to her mouth.
    “Oh, dear, no,” he said. “I am to discover all on my own that the girl is irresistible and adorable. He is a quite delightful character, Allie. I mean it. I would spend an hour in his company sooner than I would spend half as long with some of our more respectable lords. Never a dull moment.”
    “And are you going to do it?” Alice asked.
    “Marry her?” he said. “Or precipitate her into society? Perhaps both. I have agreed to escort Miss Borden and her mama to the theater tomorrow evening. Bosley would not hear of coming himself, of course. He is afraid, I would guess, that he will fill the theater with the smell of fish.”
    “Fish?”
    “He made his fortune in it,” he said. “And a sizable one, too, from all accounts. It is my considered guess that he is paying the shot to have the girl fired off.”
    “And the girl herself, Piers?” she asked. “Miss Borden, did you say?”
    He laughed. “A veritable innocent straight from the cradle,” he said. “All lowered lashes and peeping eyes and blushing cheeks and ringlets. Quite adorable, I might add, if one likes the infantry.”
    “And do you?” she asked sharply.
    He grinned. “Very appetizing,” he said. “I shall have to see, Allie. I must confess that the uncle-in-law I would acquire is a definite attraction. And don’t look indignant on his behalf. I am not making fun. I am serious.”
    “Piers,” she said, dabbing the comers of her mouth with her napkin. “This is all a joke to you, is it not? This searching for a bride, I mean. It is not a joke. Your whole future happiness is at stake.”
    “And you think I could not be happy with a blushing infant?” he asked.
    “Be serious, Piers,” she said. “You know you could not. What would you talk about with the girl for the rest of your life?”
    “I imagine I could make cooing noises to amuse her for most of the time,” he said. “It could be vastly diverting, Allie.”
    “Oh,” she said crossly, “Web should be here now. He would talk sense into you.”
    He took the napkin from her hand and rubbed her chin with it. “It is a good thing that dowager duchess is not here to observe you, Allie,” he said. “You might have been mortified to discover afterward that there was cream on your chin. You blush almost as rosily as Miss Borden, you know. And how do you know that I cannot talk good sense to the infant? You have not met her.”
    “No, I have not,” she agreed.
    “Then you must do so,” he said, “and pass judgment only afterward. Come to the theater with us tomorrow night. I think I may need you for moral support,