A Waltz in the Park Read Online Free PDF Page A

family—and you still generate interest from men like Vickers.”
    “True.”  Rosamond preened, just a bit.  Then she glared.  “And yet it hasn’t done you much good at all.”
    Also true.  Parts of Society just couldn’t get past the scandal of her parents’ marriage—to them she’d always be tainted.  The rest seemed willing to forgive and forget—especially after someone came up with that nickname.  Then suddenly everyone wanted an introduction.  The men clamored for dances, the ladies wished to be seen with her.  But it was all so stilted and superficial.  Everyone, be they friend or foe, seemed universally unwilling to look past her reputation to see the girl inside.
    “It’s not like I haven’t tried,” she protested.  “Perhaps we’ve overdone it with the strictly proper behavior.  They’ve dubbed me with that ridiculous name, and everyone who deigns to look past my family’s past treats me as if I’m made of ice.  Like that nice Mr. Nowell.  He comes around and seems happy to spend a little time in my orbit, but . . . nothing goes beyond the pleasantries. Neither he—nor any of them—will ever take a peek beyond my outer surface.”
    Rosamond groaned.  “Not you, too, with the astronomical talk.   I realize Lord Worthe’s lectures are popular, but his enthusiasm is slowly turning us all into scientists.”
    “He does make it all sound more interesting than I might have imagined.”
    “Never mind that.  What am I to do at his engagement ball, when Vickers comes looking for his dance?”
    “Dance with him?” Addy suggested.
    Heaven knew she’d like to.  And not just because he was beautiful and quick with a quip and made her feel quite out of her depth and a little reckless with it.  There had been that moment when he’d accused her of inspiring murderous impulses—it sounded just like something her father would say and made her feel as if he, at least, had sneaked a peek and seen a bit of her true self.
    “And risk my mother hearing of it?  Vickers is still a rogue and a rake—and enough of an excuse for her to cut off our funds like that!”  She snapped her fingers.  Her tone turned aggrieved.  “If you’d just hurry up and catch a husband!”
    “I am trying.”
    But though enough of society wanted to know her, it seemed no one wished to marry her.  The only gentleman to come up to scratch with an actual proposal had been Lord Nolan—and everyone in the ton knew that he was only looking for mother for his unruly brood.  It was a measure of her desperate state that she’d actually considered him—until she’d mentioned adding her infant sister to his litter of six and he’d flatly refused.
    Then, so had she.
    “Try harder,” Rosamond insisted.  “As long as you have no prospects, I must behave like a spinster too.  It’s hardly fair, especially with a man like Vickers hanging about.  I can only put him off for so long.”
    Addy nodded, but in her heart she acknowledged that her experience of the Season had nearly put her off the idea of marriage.  Was this all there was?  Dispassionate maneuverings for the highest title?  Unacknowledged competition for the largest dowry?  Social niceties but no real interaction?  It was all so discouraging and disheartening.  No wonder her mother had dug her heels in and created a scandal until she won permission to marry the man she loved. 
    Addy didn’t even have that option.  No man she’d met had even come close to inspiring that sort of palpable reaction.
    She brushed away a quick vision of Vickers.  No use pinning any hopes there.  In fact, more and more she’d been harboring rebellious thoughts about arranging a life on her own.  She held back a sigh.  The finances wouldn’t be a problem.  She could move back home, or even into the village house in the Cotswolds that had been part of her mother’s marriage parcel.  Her allowance would cover her and little Muriel very well.  She could