Miss Delacourt Has Her Day Read Online Free PDF Page A

would do, as well.”
    “I am quite aware of your change in status and title, Lady Avery,” he said. In point of fact, he was more than well enough aware of everyone’s change in status-Lucinda’s, his, Lady Derby’s-and he was sick unto death of it. Drawing Ginny to her feet, he said, “Come sit with me on the sofa, my dear, and I will tell you what has happened”

    “Oh, famous!” Lucinda said, clapping her hands. “I wish to hear all about it!”
    “Not you, Lucinda,” Anthony insisted.
    “Well! I never!” Lucinda cried and flounced across the room. It was, unfortunately, the side of the room opposite the door, and Anthony was having none of it.
    “Ginny, wait right here until I can get rid of that peagoose “
    “Peagoose?” Lord Avery shouted. “That is my lady wife you are insulting. I will have you know she is in a delicate condition and is not up to your brand of spitefulness.”
    “Delicate condition?” So soon? He turned to look a question at Ginny, but her eyes were too full of her own lack of answers to address his. Besides, Lucinda had just fainted into a puddle at his feet.
    “Oh, my poor darling!” Lord Avery cried, kneeling to crouch at her side. “You, Crenshaw, are a beast! I should call you out for this!”
    “You, Avery, are a nincompoop, and I should have put a bullet into you when I had the chance last week!”
    Lord Avery’s mouth opened and shut like that of a fish gasping its last gasp, and his chin began to wobble.
    “Oh, no, you don’t!” Anthony commanded. If he never again saw a grown man cry, it would be too soon. “As for you, Lady Avery,” he said, addressing the prone figure at his feet, “do you have an inkling what it means to be in a `delicate condition’?”
    Indignant, Lucinda propped herself up on her elbows. “Of course I do, silly! It’s what all the new brides say. First they say they are in a delicate condition, and then they say they have never been happier. Not many of them faint, but I decided I would be the fainting kind long before my come-out. Only I didn’t have a come-out because I got the pox and-“
    “Enough!” Anthony roared, grasping her by the elbow and jerking her to her feet. “Avery, your wife is not increasing! Rather, she could be, but it is too soon to know, and somehow I rather doubt the two of you have enough wits between you to start so much as a fire”

    “How dare you!” Lucinda cried. “I do know how to make a fire. I have watched the chambermaids do it any number of times. And as for that other horrendous accusation, I don’t believe I have ever been so insulted in my life!”
    “My apologies, Lady Avery. I didn’t mean to imply that I believe you to be a liar.” What he thought of her was far worse and not the least polite to say aloud.
    “Liar? Who is calling whom a liar? You, sir, called me fat and old!”
    Anthony was completely nonplussed. Had everyone gone mad? If he lived to see such a benighted day ever again, he would poke out his eyes. “Uh, I, that is..
    “Lord Crenshaw does not think you are fat, Lucinda,” Ginny said, rising gracefully to her feet. “He was merely pointing out that the meaning of the words `delicate condition’ imply you are increasing.”
    “But, Ginny,” Lucinda pouted, “only the old, fat girls are enceinte. Surely you have noticed.”
    “Yes, dear,” she said, taking Lucinda firmly by the shoulders and leading her toward the door. “But you are both young and beautiful. Therefore, you cannot be enceinte. Lord Crenshaw knows this as well as I. Is that not so, my lord?”
    “Yes! Yes, that’s it exactly!” Bless Ginny’s heart for getting him so quickly over a patch of very rough ground.
    “Now, Lord Crenshaw and I have a few matters to discuss, but thank you very much for your visit,” Ginny continued. “It was so lovely to see you both”
    Avery, his face restored to its normal shade of cream, took Ginny’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “Thank you, Miss