An Imperfect Proposal Read Online Free PDF Page A

denying that tone of voice. The girls withdrew at once, but not before catching a glimpse, once more, of his lordship’s piece of parchment. It was entitled, rather crisply, “Suitable brides.”
    Â 
    Â 
    Miss Hastings attended a number of soirées and balls in the following few weeks. They were all bittersweet, for though she glowed with anticipation, and was the prettier for it, she could not help but notice that his lordship paid her precious little attention at all, and that the prized offer of the waltz that she cherished so deeply in her memory was not repeated.
    Lady Hastings, her mama, tried not to show her disappointment at this, but pushed Amaryllis even harder to find partners for every set. To Amaryllis’s extreme discomfort she gave up even her cards to do so, so now there was simply no respite and dozens of young gentlemen were forced by common civility to make their bows.
    Amaryllis found this process excruciating and withdrew more than ever into her shyness. As a result, any suitors she might have had soon gave up, and only Mr. Ratchins kept making sly remarks about matrimony and the “honor he might imminently bestow a certain young lady.”
    Amaryllis had now ceased to hope that the earl might call, and lived in constant dread that Mr. Ratchins might live up to his promises and do so instead. As far as possible she hid in the herbarium, and what comfort she got was in the delicious scents of lemongrass that pervaded the area, for the propagation had taken very well indeed, and the transformation of rose petals to essences was worth the effort.
    She had almost forgotten her strange malady—for such she had come to think of those nonsensical pangs of hope and tenderness that overcame her at times—when she heard the crunch of carriage wheels across the cobbled entrance to Melville House—the town residence they rented for the summer. Her heart sank into her slippers, for they were expecting no guests, and she was still haunted by the notion that Mr. Ratchins might come up to scratch.
    She glanced at her gown. It was an old one, for there was no sense in wearing her best silks when she was pottering about the garden—and her hair was all about her face instead of neatly pinned. She fixed this detail, and waited, her heart beating erratically in her chest.
    After half an hour or so of suspense, the carriage moved on—she could just see it from the high window of the herbarium, but not any of its details. She heaved a tiny sigh of relief. It could not, after all, have been anyone of consequence.

Chapter Four
    How wrong she was proven! It was someone of great consequence indeed, and had she but known it, those few quiet moments in the herbarium were to be her last.
    Just as she was trimming some dead leaves off a small tree of Valencia oranges, her mama whirled into the room and positively crushed her to her bosom in an embrace that practically squeezed all the air from her lungs. When she was released, Amaryllis was astounded to note that Lady Hastings was crying, and that the tears were staining her India silk shawl. Lady Hastings did not seem to care.
    â€œOh, Amaryllis! It is like a dream come true! I knew it would happen, oh, I knew it! Oh, my dear, I am so terribly, terribly happy for you! “
    Amaryllis felt a strange lurching in her stomach. Her mama’s happiness could surely mean only one thing, and that one thing was something she had been perfectly dreading for weeks.
    â€œMama?”
    â€œYes, my angel?”
    â€œHave I received a proposal of marriage?”
    â€œYes, yes, yes, my poppet! And didn’t I tell you it would be so? Oh, how I could ever have doubted . . . oh, Amaryllis I am so happy for you, but you must change at once. That old muslin won’t do, you know, not anymore . . .”
    â€œMama, I have not been consulted!”
    â€œVery proper too, for naturally your papa and my consent had to be obtained first. You