Supervising Sally Read Online Free PDF Page B

a groom! It’s not at all the thing for an unmarried girl to ride out with a man she’s not related to.’
    The earl looked down at her, his glance haughty. ‘Are you implying that Miss Kingston would not be safe in my company?’ he asked, his voice silky.
    Hermione, flustered, lost herself in a maze of denials, apologies and excuses.
    Priscilla eyed her with interest. ‘You need not be concerned for Phoebe’s virtue,’ she said. ‘Uncle Zach is determined not to marry, so he’s not going to compromise any girl and fall into parson’s mousetrap.’
    Hermione, flushing unbecomingly, retreated to where Dorothy was sitting with one of the older ladies. The earl, trying to look stern, chastised his niece for her language and her forward behaviour, and then had to leave them to take his dinner partner into the dining-room. Priscilla merely chuckled.
    â€˜She probably wished he’d taken her out. It would have done her no good. He only flirts with married ladies,’ she whispered to Phoebe, ‘but he’ll have to marry in the end if he doesn’t want our great-uncle Jonas and his horrible brat to inherit,’ she added with a grimace.
    There was no time for more, and Phoebe was left wondering what was the matter with Jonas and his son that made Priscilla dislike them.
    The guests for the ball began to arrive as soon as dinner was over. Phoebe had not seen the ballroom before, which
was attached to one side of the house, but when she went in she gasped in delight. It looked like a magic winter fairyland. Greenery, fir trees and swags of holly and ivy were all around the room, arranged to create small alcoves which could be used for those who were not dancing. Lit by several chandeliers, the candles reflected a hundred times in the crystal drops and glittered on something which had been used to make it appear the trees and leaves were covered with frost.
    The earl was dancing with his sister’s younger guests, but Phoebe had no shortage of partners. Occasionally one of the older men invited Dorothy or Hermione to dance, but most of the younger men avoided them. They really did look most peculiar, in white satin gowns trimmed with pale-pink rosebuds and embroidered with dark-green branches and leaves across the bodices and round the hems. Dorothy carried a pale-pink shawl, Hermione a pale-green one. The dresses were far too young for them, almost as though they were in fancy dress, and their discontented expressions were not encouraging.
    It was after supper, when Phoebe was wondering a little disconsolately if the earl had forgotten he had said he’d dance with her, when he appeared at her side. She saw Dorothy glaring as he led her on to the floor. No doubt the report that went back to Bradshaw Towers would be critical and accuse her of being fast. She determined she must write to her mother and give her own account before those cats prejudiced Mrs Kingston and gave her a false impression of her behaviour. She did not think Mama would believe bad rumours about her, or change her mind and not permit her to go to Brussels, but she suspected that if the sisters could spoil her chances they would do so.
    â€˜Not too stiff?’ the earl asked as he put his arm about Phoebe’s waist and swirled her into the crowd of dancers. It
was a waltz, a dance she and some girl friends had learned just before Papa died, when it was considered so daring very few hostesses allowed it at their dances. She had never danced it in public, but to her relief the steps and the rhythm had not been forgotten.
    â€˜No,’ she managed, but was too breathless, both at his closeness and the speed of the twirling, to say more.
    â€˜My sister tells me the Bradshaw sisters are your cousins.’
    â€˜No they are not!’ Phoebe replied, horror-struck. ‘They are not related to me at all. My older sister is married to their brother, that is all. It was very kind of Lady