A Marriageable Miss Read Online Free PDF Page A

jaw tightened and, under his breath, he murmured to himself, ‘Dear God above! What sort of a fellow is this business turning me into?’
     

    The next morning, however, the earl was not a little surprised to receive a note from Miss Wheatley asking him if he would be so good as to call into Cadogan Place that afternoon. Although he had decided to comply with his grandmother’s suggestion, this timely invitation now meant that he would no longer have to return to the house ‘cap in hand,’ so to speak, for which reprieve he was profoundly thankful.
    Therefore, it was in a considerably lighter frame of mind that, sharp on the dot of three o’clock that afternoon, he presented himself at the Wheatley house, whereupon he was straight away shown up to a pleasantly appointed sitting room on the first floor.
    At his entrance, two equally elegantly clad young ladies turned to greet him; Miss Wheatley, he presumed, as he executed his bow, being the aquiline-featured, mousy-haired female whom he had spotted at the window on his previous visit. However, upon raising his eyes, he met the challenging stare of her very striking companion who, having returned to her own seat, indicated that he should take the chair opposite.
    ‘It was very good of your lordship to come,’ said this chestnut-haired vision, in a clear, mellow tone of voice which, noted the earl, his temporary loss of composure now restored, was quite as attractive as its owner and who, it was now becoming increasingly obvious to him, was in fact the daughter of the house.
    ‘Not at all, Miss Wheatley,’ he eventually found himself saying. ‘It is my pleasure, I assure you. I would, of course, have called in any case, to enquire after your father’s health. I trust that he suffered no serious hurt from yesterday’s unfortunate incident?’
    ‘Thank you for your concern, my lord,’ she replied coolly while, at the same time, beckoning Lottie to come forwards. ‘I am happy to say that he does, indeed, seem to be on the mend—please allow me to introduce my cousin and companion, Miss Charlotte Daniels.’
    Rising to his feet, Richard bent his head and raised Lottie’s outstretched hand to his lips, which unexpected gallantry caused that young woman’s cheeks to turn bright scarlet and her heart to flutterquite atrociously. Bobbing a swift curtsy, she returned hurriedly to her seat where, still overcome, she took refuge in her book.
    Finding herself somewhat irritated, not only as a result of her cousin’s gauche behaviour, but rather more so by Markfield’s extravagantly high-flown gesture, Helena, who had been agreeably surprised when the earl had walked into the room, was beginning to think that he was no better than any of her previous would-be suitors.
    When she had arrived in the study on the previous afternoon to find him bent over her unconscious parent, other than pushing the visitor to one side, she had given him scant regard. Lottie had, of course, regaled her with enthusiastic descriptions of his dark, wavy hair, shapely limbs and broad-shouldered elegance, all of which Helena, for the most part, had ignored. In fact, had it not been for Mr Wheatley’s insistence that she should write and ask Markfield to pay another call, there, as far as she was concerned, the matter would have rested. However, loath to cause her father any unnecessary anxiety in his present fragile state, Helena felt that she had no choice but to obey his instructions that, since his own consultation with Markfield had been all but finalised before his seizure, she herself should complete the interview, which merely needed the earl’s signature on the document. Once this was obtained, Helena knew that she was then committed to yet another dreary round of accompanying the man to any tedious function to which he had managed to procure an invitation. Having already undergone similar ordeals with Markfield’s three predecessors—as undistinguished a set of no-hopers as one might