A Regency Match Read Online Free PDF

until we were alone?”
    She turned away from her escorts in disgust and humiliation, leaning against the table in an attempt to compose herself. To her intense dismay, the table gave way, and the dozens of books displayed upon it tumbled to the floor with a thunderous crash. She jumped back, uttered a little scream and looked quickly towards the door. Let him be gone , she prayed with a desperate earnestness. Please let him be gone. Let him not see what I’ve done .
    But Lord Wynwood had heard the crash just as he was stepping through the doorway, and he turned around instinctively. He stared at her with his eyebrows raised. Ignoring the goggling eyes and disdainful murmurings of everyone else, she could feel only his eyes on her. Her cheeks burned, and she couldn’t bear to meet his look. But his expression of distaste was so apparent that a spark of anger flared in her breast. How dared he look at her so? She lifted her chin and stared back at him challengingly. His lordship’s lips twitched in barely-perceptible amusement; he shook his head in barely-expressed disbelief, bowed briefly and disappeared into the street.
    Although the proprietor of the shop was very kind, and despite the fact that her escorts found the scene uproariously funny, Sophia left the bookstore in a state of almost unbearable chagrin. Bertie’s company was suddenly insupportable, and Mr. Dillingham’s asininity seemed to have markedly increased. She insisted upon being taken home. Ignoring their attempts to tease her out of the doldrums, she walked along silent and withdrawn. The memory of Lord Wynwood’s expression at that last, deplorable moment was etched on her inner eye. I don’t care what he thinks of me , she repeated to herself firmly as the mortifying scene played over and over again in her imagination. But each repetition made the incident appear more odiously vulgar, and the state of her emotions made it quite clear that she cared very much indeed about what his lordship thought of her.
    She dismissed her escorts on her doorstep and entered the house quietly, wishing only to creep up to her bedroom and hide away from the world. Her spirits utterly depressed, she didn’t want to face her grandmother. Lady Alicia, as soon as she learned the details of the morning’s fiasco, would be sure to blame the whole debacle on Sophy’s impetuosity. Sophy therefore hurried up the stairs on tiptoe. But she’d only reached the first landing when her grandmother’s voice stopped her. “Is that you, Sophy?” her ladyship called from the sitting room.
    Lady Alicia only called her “Sophy” when she was in a very good mood, so it was evident to the girl that the news of the incident had not yet found its way to her grandmother’s ears. In some relief, she went down to the sitting room. “Good afternoon, Grandmama,” she said from the doorway.
    â€œI’ve had a letter from Lady Wynwood,” Alicia told her, looking up from the closely-written sheets of paper she’d been reading. “She writes that our visit to Sussex is to be even more festive than she’d planned. It seems that her son is to be married, and he’s requested his mother to make the announcement at Wynwood Hall to a small, select group of friends and relations, ourselves included.”
    Sophy’s breath caught in her throat. “Do you mean …? Are you saying that Lord Wynwood will be staying at Wynwood Hall … at the very time when we’ll be there?”
    â€œYes, my dear, that’s just what I’m saying.”
    Sophy stared at her grandmother in wide-eyed horror. “But … but you never told me that he would be present—!”
    â€œI didn’t know it, you peagoose. But you needn’t look so alarmed, my love. If your concern is caused by the recollection of the to-do at the Gilberts’ ball, you may put such thoughts aside. Perhaps I made too much