The Savage Marquess Read Online Free PDF

“My dear Miss Westerville,” he said, “you are so modish, so beautiful, that I could only wish your father were here to see you.”
    He walked ahead, and the countess and Ismene, darting furious glances at Lucinda, followed.
    “What on earth was Roux about, to turn the companion into a fashion plate?” hissed the countess. “Kennedy was told to cut off Lucinda’s hair.”
    “When malice is confounded, it is always upsetting,” said the earl equably.
    As they entered the ballroom, a roped-off square of floor rather like a ring at a cattle auction, Lucinda thought nervously it was as well she was only a companion with no expectations of social success. To arrive at Almack’s as a Miss making her come-out must be even more terrifying. How hard everyone’s eyes were! How assessing. How they did stare so!
    Heads bent and voices whispered. Lucinda did not know the stares and urgent whispers were from one lady to another as they planned to find out the name of Lucinda’s hairdresser at the earliest opportunity.
    “Lucinda is not to be introduced as my friend,” muttered Ismene to her mother. “Society will think we are making fools of them when it comes out she is only the daughter of a curate. Put it about, Mama, in case the gentlemen ask her to dance and not me.”
    The countess pressed her daughter’s hand reassuringly and moved with determined steps to the row of chaperones to start to inform society about the lowly state of the new beauty. But she had quite forgotten that she had persuaded the patronesses to issue vouchers to the unknown Miss Westerville by creating a false background for Lucinda. As the gossip went about the ballroom, the countess soon found herself faced by one of the angry patronesses, demanding to know why such a cuckoo had been allowed to flutter its feathers in this exclusive nest of the aristocracy. Seeing that her daughter’s own vouchers might be at risk, the countess exclaimed that the gossip must have come from some jealous and malicious source. Lucinda was a companion to Ismene, it was true, but of good
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and one of the Somerset Westervilles.
    She then hurried back to Ismene to warn her that ruining Lucinda socially would mean a termination of Ismene’s vouchers. So Ismene was forced to see Lucinda treated as a member of society.
    But Lucinda diplomatically turned down many invitations to dance, accepting only when she was sure Ismene had a partner. She was puzzled by Ismene’s lack of popularity with the gentlemen. Ismene was beautiful and rich. It was most odd. But Lucinda still considered her own extreme dislike of Ismene as unnatural. The girl was badly spoilt, not a monster. The fact was that Ismene longed for power. She felt secure in her own wealth and attractions and was sure that by saying a great deal of wounding and cutting things to the gentlemen that she was enslaving them the more. So the only partners she had were among the few adventurers and impoverished Irish peers who had slipped in through the iron net of the patronesses’ social control.
    It was when Ismene, who was dancing with Sir Brian Callaghan, a rakish and penniless Irishman, noticed that Lucinda was being partnered by Lord Peter Trevize, a rich and handsome nobleman, that she felt that matters had gone far enough. So when Lucinda was promenading with Lord Peter at the end of the dance, Ismene walked up to them and said sharply, “Come, companion, you are neglecting your duties.”
    Lord Peter looked angry and surprised, but Lucinda meekly curtsied and followed Ismene to a line of chairs against the wall. “Now, sit down and stop making a cake of yourself,” snapped Ismene. She then sat down angrily next to Lucinda and opened her mouth to give that young lady a severe dressing-down when, fortunately for Lucinda, a diversion happened in the form of a new arrival.
    “Here is Rockingham!” cried someone.
    The Savage Marquess had just entered the ballroom. Lucinda looked at him curiously. He was