Lady Adventuress 02 - The Education of Lord Hartley Read Online Free PDF

know that it is a dreadfully fast thing to do. But what other choice do I have? I won’t stay here to be bullied into marring the beastly Stanhope. No, it simply won’t answer to sit around this house and wait for my fate to happen to me. I shall think of it as a Grand Tour. I have always envied Frederick his, after all. And perhaps Papa will come to his senses while I am gone.”
    Cecile shook her head. “You would be ruined.”
    “Possibly. But which future is worse? There will be no love or joy in a union with Stanhope. And perhaps there won’t be a scandal after all. I am not well known in London and it is unlikely my own father will spread word of my flight. Very probably no one will know Miss Margaret Dacre ever existed at all.”
    “Oh, surely not!”
    “Yes! I have been little better than a ghost all these years. No more. Now I shall have a new name and a life of opportunity and adventure. It is time I saw the Continent. I think I would almost rather have that than even Lord Hartley. Oh, dear Cecile, please do not look so glum. You need not accompany me, of course. To aid in my flight, or to flee with me, would ruin your prospects of another position. I won’t incriminate you.”
    Cecile looked undecided for a moment. Maggie did not blame her. After all, she really would have great trouble finding another post without references and with scandal following hot on her heels. But to go home to Paris…
    “It would be a most uncertain future,” Cecile whispered. “I know I have always spoken about going back, but I have never been there and it would be starting entirely afresh.”
    “Uncertain, yes. But a better future than awaits within these walls, where everything is very certain indeed. And much better than being leg-shackled to a puerile oaf for a husband. That may have been the fate of many before me, but it will not be mine.”
    “Perhaps you ought at least to meet with him, Maggie. He may have changed. Many a man has been known to undergo a transformation of character upon being left a widower with children to raise.”
    Maggie couldn’t credit that suggestion with an ounce of faith, but that did set her thinking of odious relations in general, and Lady Dunwell in particular.
    She felt her face light up with a very wicked smile.
    “Oh, certainly I shall. It will be great fun to torment Papa by willingly receiving his guest. If what he wants in a daughter is complete moral perfection, then so be it. I feel there is a lesson I ought to teach them both.”
    *
    The next day, Lady Compton departed for London in a temper. She had been apologetic, explaining she had not been able to sway her pig-headed brother in his latest idiocy, but she had also been adamant that Maggie was not to despair.
    She was going to consult her friend, Lady Strathavon, who was the best person in the world at fixing things. They would persuade him eventually – or outsmart him.
    Maggie couldn’t see how she was meant to keep her chin up when her father was talking about economical wedding confectionary.
    Lord Chenefelt, meanwhile, had set the servants to prepare for Mr Stanhope’s visit with his future bride.
    Maggie wondered if there was any way to get a message to Frederick in time to make a whit of difference, but Frederick had such a way of setting Lord Chenefelt’s back up that he would likely do more harm than good when Stanhope was already practically at the door. It was too late for Frederick.
    If Lord Chenefelt had felt remotely suspicious at his daughter’s gracious acquiescence to meet with Mr Stanhope, he gave not the least sign of it.
    He seemed to have decided that, at the urging of her aunt, Maggie had at last taken up the mantle of appropriate daughterly obedience.
    *
    The following morning, Maggie descended to the parlour in time to meet their guest and order refreshments.
    Lord Chenefelt knew nothing of ladies’ fashions and so did not recognize Maggie’s dress for the drably plain creation that it was,