Lord Rakehell Read Online Free PDF

Lady Anne Howe welcomed Frances and Maud Hamilton to her birthday party. “Hello, John Claud.”
Your name wasn’t included on the invitation.
    â€œAre you sure you’re eighteen, Anne?” Frances asked doubtfully. “I thought you were younger than I am. How old are you
really
?”
    â€œIt’s rude to ask a lady her age,” John Claud chastised his sister.
    Frances Hamilton rolled her eyes. “He insisted on escorting us even though our house is just around the corner.”
    â€œMy brother Montagu will be happy you came, John Claud. Spending the afternoon with a gaggle of debutantes is akin to torture on the rack to him. Ah, speak of the devil, and in a puff of brimstone, here he is.”
    â€œHello, John Claud.” Montagu shook hands. “Shall we take refuge in the library?”
    â€œI hope your father joins us. I never tire of hearing about his years as lord chamberlain when he was in charge of Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and all who held office. He is a well of information to anyone interested in a royal appointment.”
    The young ladies moved into the drawing room and greeted Anne’s other friends, Florence Paget and her sister, who were the daughters of the Earl of Uxbridge. Though Lady Florence would soon be nineteen, she looked younger than the other girls because she was rather small.
    Frances lowered her voice. “John Claud professes interest in your father, but I think he came to see you. My brother is smitten with you, even if you are only
seventeen
.”
    â€œYou are quite wrong, Frances. I have decided to be eighteen,” Anne informed her friend, “so that I shall be presented to the queen along with you this year.”
    â€œHow the devil can you arrange that?”
    â€œYou forget, my sister Emily is lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria.”
The real truth is that Father has so many offspring he doesn’t have the faintest idea how old I am. Last night when Mother announced it was my eighteenth birthday, everyone accepted it.
    Maud threw Anne a look of alarm. “Emily isn’t coming to your party, is she?”
    â€œHave no fear—she condescended to come last night to the family birthday dinner.”
    â€œDid she bring you a gift?”
    â€œUnfortunately, yes. She gave me a wine-colored shawl that clashes with my creamy-colored hair, knowing full well it will make me look hideous. Tomorrow I shall take it back to Madame Mantalini’s and exchange it for one of pale lavender.”
    The Hamilton sisters greatly admired Anne. She was unconventional and passionate about everything from friendship to fashion, and even designed some of her own clothes.
    â€œDid Emily bring any gossip from Buckingham Palace?” Frances asked avidly.
    â€œAs a matter of fact she did. She loves nothing better than impressing her older brothers and their wives with royal gossip.” Anne lowered her voice. “She said that the queen and the Princess Royal are conspiring to find a bride for the Prince of Wales. Emily says the queen and Albert favor a German princess, but Princess Vicky disagrees. She wrote that the
Danish
royal family has lovely daughters.”
    â€œThe Prince of Wales is very young, but then Princess Vicky was married when she was barely seventeen. She was engaged to Frederick of Prussia when she was fourteen.”
    â€œMy own mother was married when she was sixteen,” Anne confided. “Father was more than
three
times her age. He truly robbed the cradle.”
    â€œDo you think it was a love match?” eleven-year-old Maud asked innocently.
    â€œWell, I don’t doubt that Father was enamored of
her
, but I warrant she would have preferred a young husband over one who was on the wrong side of fifty, and had a grown family of ten from his first wife, to boot.”
    â€œYou’re more fortunate than us,” Florence Paget pointed out. “Our father has had
three
wives. Our