The Indomitable Miss Harris Read Online Free PDF Page A

Either I retrench or I rusticate.”
    “Rusticate? You mean he would send you back to Sussex?”
    “That’s what he said.”
    “But he can’t do that! He has no authority over you.”
    “Hasn’t he?” There was a wealth of bitterness in the two words. “If our respected father had seen his way clear to leaving me my fortune without so dashed many strings attached to it, that might well be the case. But since Landover holds the purse until I turn twenty-five, he exercises a good deal of authority. I daresay I could defy him if he ordered me back to Sussex, but I’d find it deuced awkward to live in London with my allowance cut off.”
    “He couldn’t do such a shabby thing! What would people think of him?”
    “I doubt he cares a straw for that. Or for what they think of me, come to that. He has said I must sell my new curricle and pair and cancel any orders with my creditors that have not already been filled. And I am not to show my face at White’s or any other gaming establishment until after quarter day, when he says I shall be able to afford such debts again.” He allowed himself a wry smile. “When I dared to ask him how he expected me to pass the time until then, since I was not to be allowed to amuse myself, he said I should shoulder my responsibility as your guardian and strive to keep you out of mischief.”
    Gillian sighed. “I foresee that I shall be ‘cabined, cribbed, and confined.’”
    “ Macbeth, act three,” he chuckled, relaxing his stern air at last. “You begin to sound like Cousin Amelia and will be taken for a bluestocking if you aren’t careful.” He paused, then, taking her chin in his hand, tilted it up to gaze directly into her eyes. “I don’t deny, puss, that I for one would just as soon lock you up, but I’ve a strong suspicion it won’t be as easy as that. I shall be expected, instead, to dance attendance whilst you flit from ball to rout and back again. To think I swore that I would never set foot in Almack’s. Knee breeches!”
    She smiled ruefully at him. “You look very handsome in knee breeches. And Almack’s is not so bad. The food is quite stale and unimaginative, of course, but the dancing is fun, and everyone who matters attends the assemblies. I wonder what Cousin Amelia will have to say to all this.”
    “She will smile and quote a line or two from the Bard, but I daresay she will not be much upset by the move,” Avery replied wisely. “Her thoughts are centered much more firmly upon her social activities and obligations than upon her residence, so long as that residence is an appropriate one. Landover House will more than meet her requirements.”
    Sir Avery soon took himself off, wondering aloud how, since he had already promised to spend the afternoon and evening with some of his cronies, he could manage to do so without getting himself into trouble with Landover. He seemed pessimistic, but his prediction regarding Mrs. Amelia Periwinkle was soon confirmed by the arrival of that lady herself. Gillian had returned to her bedchamber, and when her chaperone arrived, Mrs. Trueworthy showed her straight up, then tactfully left them to their privacy. Mrs. Periwinkle, swishing orange crape and colorfully crowned with an improbable matching wig, fluttered into the room, her thin, shawl-draped arms outstretched toward Gillian, who came rapidly to her feet from the French seat.
    “Naughty girl!” scolded the elderly lady in a twittering voice. “I cannot tell you how overset I’m become by your behavior. But every cloud engenders not a storm, you know, and a little fire is quickly trodden out. This house is utterly splendid and far better suited for our own entertaining than that tiny place in Curzon Street; therefore, we shall make the best of what the fates dispose.”
    Gillian clasped the veined outstretched hands and kissed the proffered well-powdered cheek. The sweet scent of orange blossoms enfolded her before she stepped away again with a tiny