Bexley-Smythe Quintet 01 - Flight of Fancy Read Online Free PDF Page B

aloft.
    His head shook slightly, as though he was warring with himself over what to say. “I need to know what you were doing, Georgie. I need you to tell me who you were skulking after and listening to, and why.”
    She bit her lower lip while she debated her options. He already knew she wanted to meet Lord Haworth, though she’d not informed him why she had such a desire. Would it really hurt to tell him this, just because he’d refused to introduce her to the viscount?
    No matter how she racked her mind, she couldn’t sort out a good excuse to lie to him, blast it all.
    Eventually, she screwed up her courage and went for it, sucking in a massive gulp of air before beginning. “That was Lord Northwood and Lord Sackville. I followed them because they were discussing Lord Haworth. Since you won’t help me to meet the man, I thought to learn what I could about him, in whatever way I could.”
    It took a decided effort not to heed the rising sense of panic taking over Monty’s expression at her confession, but she determinedly ignored it.
    “ Now,” she continued, staring at her slippers in order to avoid the censure she knew would be in his eyes, “if you don’t mind, I should be getting back to the ballroom before someone misses me.”
    Georgie didn’t wait for his response. She sprinted through the corridors in the direction of the ballroom, with as much haste as she could muster short of resorting to running.
    Running would be supremely unladylike. That would never do.
     
    Four days.
    For four solid days since the start of the Season, Georgie had hardly been able to get herself out of Monty’s sight for even a few minutes, save those blessed moments when she was shut away in her chamber, supposedly sleeping.
    Supposedly , she should note, because she’d scarcely been able to sleep a wink since the Season had started. Lud, but she hadn’t been able to stop her mind from working other than for a few dratted moments at a time…and even those moments were few and far between, to say the least.
    At every turn, she was trying to determine just how, precisely, she was going to escape Monty’s attention for long enough to discover which events and soirees Lord Haworth might attend. From there, she was still at a loss as to how she would gain an introduction to the man, since typically gentlemen sought to gain introductions to ladies and not the other way around. And even after she did manage to meet him, it would still be necessary to convince him to take her up in his gas balloon.
    None of this seemed all that easy.
    Particularly not with Monty about constantly. His hovering had only increased since the Davenport ball two nights ago. Since then, he was at their house on Berkeley Square before she arose in the morning, and he stayed until after she retired in the evening, and she couldn’t fathom how to breathe without him there to watch and make certain she was doing it properly, or how to blink without him darting to her side to offer a handkerchief in case she was crying—let alone how to meet Lord Haworth.
    Goodness, even now, as Georgie and her mother and sisters took their luncheon, he was sitting across from her with a rather queer expression on his face as he stared at her.
    Again , it should be noted. The more often he was around, the more frequently this particular expression greeted her. Monty had taken up this sensationally perturbing habit of staring at her in a decidedly…well… uncomfortable manner.
    Uncomfortable for her, that was. Monty didn’t seem all that uncomfortable.
    On the contrary, he seemed entirely too comfortable in his surroundings, like he had just decided to make himself a permanent fixture at the dining room table or something else of the sort that would be equally ridiculous and perplexing.
    Georgie stabbed a spear of asparagus with far more force than was necessary and then sulked as she chewed it. She could not make her plan work with him underfoot at every turn.
    She needed