The Original Miss Honeyford Read Online Free PDF Page A

nineteen years, my lord, and no schoolgirl. What on earth gave you the impression I was fresh from the seminary?”
    “The cheroot,” he said, waving his quizzing glass to and fro on its long gold chain. “It makes you look like a naughty schoolgirl.”
    “On the contrary, my lord, I often smoke cheroots of an evening when I am cozing with my father.”
    He raised his thin eyebrows and relapsed into silence.
    “And
drink brandy,” added Honey defiantly.
    “And swear as you did when you entered the dining room?” he asked at length.
    “I did not know there was anyone here. I am not in the habit of swearing—except on the hunting field.”
    “So you hunt, Miss Honeyford.”
    “Yes,” said Honey with a toss of her curls. “I like it above all things. You hunt yourself, of course.”
    “No, I have no taste for it.”
    “I thought not,” said Honey, looking at him with contempt.
    “Not the fox. I have hunted with the harriers. I looked very fine in my scarlet coat.”
    “You do not wear your pinks to hunt the hare,” said Honey loftily.
    “Ah, yes, that I discovered to my mortification. There I was, a veritable advertisement for Asher. And there
they
all were, all the myrtle-green gentlemen in their white cords, or twilled fustian frocks. Tell me, do you enjoy the kill?”
    “Yes,” muttered Honey, looking down at her lap. In fact, since the day she was first blooded, she had not stayed for the kill, being unable to bear it. But it seemed such a
womanish
thing to confess to.
    Honey enjoyed hunting simply because of the hard riding involved and because it put her on easy terms with the men.
    “You are not by any chance traveling to London, Miss Honeyford?”
    “Yes, I am to make my come-out.”
    “I can see you now at Almack’s, swearing like a trooper as you fall over Lady Jersey’s train.” He looked at her dress. “You will need to become a trifle more modish.”
    “I am to have a fine wardrobe when I reach London,” said Honey, putting her chin up. “It is not necessary to wear fine clothes in the country.”
    “You surprise me. There are more gentlemen, Miss Honeyford, trapped into marriage at a country house than ever ran into the snare during the Season.”
    “I am only going to stay with my aunt to enjoy the pleasures of the metropolis.
You
do not hunt the fox because you have no taste for it. For the same reason,
I
do not hunt a husband.”
    “Perhaps just as well,” he mocked. “We men are sadly old-fashioned, and a lady who hunts, drinks brandy, and smokes cheroots might be considered too intimidating.”
    “Not to a man of honesty and integrity.”
    “Ah, so you
do
have hopes.”
    “Yet that is not my sole reason for going,” said Honey, wondering if this tall, elegant gentleman could read her mind, could see her pleading father and hear his request to bring home a son-in-law with money who would help to manage the land. She had a sudden picture of arriving home with this elegant, lazy fop, and grinned, a gamin grin which made her look like a cheeky schoolboy.
    “Yes, you are quite right.” He smiled. “We would not suit.”
    “I never even contemplated such a thing,” said Honey.
    “No, but you thought it, and a rare joke you thought it too.”
    “My dear sir, if I may say so without offense, you are a trifle too old for someone of my tender years and so the thought never even entered my head.”
    “Very true. I am thirty and that is a great age. But I still have all my own teeth.”
    “Do the ladies examine your teeth before they contemplate entering matrimony with you? It sounds like a horse fair.”
    “They have no chance to contemplate any such thing. I have so far successfully escaped the parson’s mousetrap.”
    “My lord, you are boasting. One would think all the ladies in society were storming your doors.”
    “Well, sometimes it does seem a little like that. It is not my charm or my looks they desire, but my title and fortune.”
    “Are you rich?” asked