Miss Delacourt Has Her Day Read Online Free PDF

Delacourt! Perhaps Lucinda and I shall attempt a trip to the Continent, after all!”
    “How marvelous! Please do write and let me know how you get along. The footman will see you out” And without further ado, the peagoose and the hen were out the door.

    Anthony collapsed onto the sofa and sighed in relief. “I thought they would never leave!”
    “No matter,” Ginny said with an airy wave of her hand. “I daresay when I am a duchess, I shall be obliged to entertain any number of lords and ladies.”
    “True, I suppose you shall, but I was persuaded you cared little about such things.”
    “But of course I care! It is the duty of a duchess to ensure social success for the sake of her husband, the duke. There is no point in my waiting until I have a title to be proper and correct,” Ginny said with an overbright smile.
    Anthony felt a spark of dismay. “Ginny, what has Grandmama been saying to you?”
    “Nothing! That is to say, she has been tutoring me on my duties as your future wife, and I am very grateful.” She returned to the sofa and sat down, forcing Anthony to rise to his feet. He would have momentarily claimed the place by her side he longed for, but she had displayed her skirts so generously, there was but an inch or two left upon the sofa on which to spread his trousers. It was an affectation he had seen employed by Lucinda a hundred times, which was a hundred times too many. Frowning, he remained standing and forced himself to attend to what his beloved was saying.
    “As I do not wish to assume anything, perhaps it is best you tell me about Lady Derby,” Ginny said, mild as butter.
    No censure, no accusation, no objects being hurled at his head… Anthony felt as if the floor were shifting beneath his feet. The woman before him seemed an utter stranger. Surely her head had not been turned by the prospect of becoming a duchess?
    “Miss Delacourt,” he said, longing to call her Ginny but unsure what game she was playing, “it has never been my purpose to keep anything from you.” He paused to gauge her reaction to his words, but her face maintained its former appearance of sweet complacency. “Ah, that is to say, if I had thought it of any import, I would have informed you of my past romantic entanglements.” Oh, Lord, that hadn’t come out right. Surely now she would give him a piece of her mind. And he would be glad of it!

    “La, sir, that is all in the past! You were recently betrothed to Lady Avery, but I am not the least troubled by that fact”
    “Ginny, it is hardly the same thing! You know my brief attachment to Lucinda was not known to anyone but those of us in the house, and a total sham, to boot” He turned away from her, afraid to see her reaction or, worse, a lack of it, in her face. “It was not so with Rebecca, er, Lady Derby, and if you think others will let the subject die, you are sadly mistaken.”
    Now he had gone and done it. In his mind’s eye, he saw Ginny’s adorable face crumple, her eyes shining with unshed tears. He spun about to capture this evidence of her affectionwhy, it had been eons since they had spoken of love, perhaps as long ago as yesterday!-only to come face-to-face with Grandmama.
    “Anthony! Pray tell, what you are doing here?”
    He was taken aback. “I believe I was expected, as I have been every afternoon since our return to London” An ugly thought occurred to him. “You haven’t had a letter from my uncle, the duke, have you?” He didn’t know how one could possibly have arrived before him, but bad news had a way of traveling quickly. Avery and Lucinda were evidence of that.
    “Why? Was there something you wished to confess before I have the whole from my son, the duke?” the dowager duchess asked, murder in her eyes.
    Anthony resisted the urge to steal a glance at Ginny’s face. He knew she would see the act as doubt, and he would rather take a bullet, even one from that fop Avery, than have her see him waver.
    “Confess? Why,