The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane Read Online Free PDF Page B

think the house was lighting the way for the
long-awaited return of the prodigal! Tongues wag often enough in
this snoop-nosed town without some dowager witnessing Emily, who is
not yet Out, stealing into the house after dusk.”
    As Tansy opened her mouth to apologize—not an
easy thing for her—he shut her off quickly by saying, “Let me get
shed of these nosey-parkers, if I may, before we continue.”
    She bowed to his wisdom, not meekly, but
merely acknowledging his request with a curt nod.
    His grace dealt with the assembled servants
quickly. A quelling glance to the footmen sent them scattering on
suddenly-recalled errands belowstairs. The housemaid, praying
fervently for the anonymity of a servant most masters never
bothered to penetrate, had already fled of her own accord back the
way she had come, and was already tripping down the dark back
stairs.
    Having satisfactorily disposed of the lower
staff, his grace turned to address his butler. “Dunny,” he
commanded the stately grey-haired man, who had somehow come into
the possession of three woolen capes—the last of which, being a
particularly undistinguished brown article of indeterminate years,
he held at arm’s-length and surveyed as if he were indeed clutching
a particularly vile species of vermin, “Lady Emily desires a cold
collation brought to her in her chambers. And have her maid sent to
her immediately.”
    At this preemptory dismissal, Lady Emily
pouted and made as if to protest, but was struck down in mid-whine
by a look much like the one that had sent the footmen scurrying.
With a toss of her fair curls and a halfhearted stamp of one small
foot, she turned and began ascending the staircase. Midway she
turned for one last entreaty.
    “Now, miss, if you please,” came a stern
female voice, not to be denied. Lady Emily blinked, blushed, and
knew herself bested by Tansy. She retired without another word.
    “Well done,” congratulated his grace.
    Tansy turned from the sight of a bit too much
maidenly ankle, exposed as Lady Emily flounced her way abovestairs,
and addressed his grace. “Thank you. I have always found it best to
begin as you plan to go on. Our roles are becoming established
nicely, don’t you think?”
    “Quite,” returned Avanoll, happily amazed.
“But be warned; that was just the opening skirmish in what may well
prove an epic battle. My dear sibling may not be very astute, but
she is inventive, and mischief is her middle name. Shall we adjourn
to the drawing room and allow the footmen to resume their posts at
the door? My undependable aunt is assuredly still out and about,
regaling everyone she meets with the details of the debilitating
disease that will probably keep her niece abed and secluded for
several days.”
    “Was that your brainchild or hers?”
    “Mine, more’s the pity. She’ll probably lay
it on so thick and rare only a ninny will fail to scent a scandal.
But we—and if I haven’t thanked you I do so now—have shut the door
on any rumor by fetching our fledgling home safe and dry. I suppose
you think me cold-hearted or unbearably rude in not allowing you to
retire along with my sister?” suggested his grace, as he motioned
Tansy into a large room and directed her to a chair near the neat
fire blazing in the hearth.
    “On the contrary, sir. I find it entirely in
character,” replied Tansy as she ignored the gesture to stand in
front of the fire, holding her chilled hands toward the heat. His
grace, having half-descended into a facing chair, hastily rose once
more so that he fairly bumped heads with his cousin.
    He could see her discomfort and fatigue and
his conscience twinged as he remembered her protestations of hunger
and bone-deep weariness. But he felt deeply the need to get a few
things settled before his aunt, who headed the increasingly long
list of banes upon his suddenly blighted life, burst in on them and
opened her proverb-spouting, epigram-quoting mouth. Five minutes
with Aunt Lucinda would be