A Change of Fortune by Sandra Heath Read Free Book Online Page A

doing it very gracelessly. The more she was with him, the more disagreeable she found him, and the more she thought him extremely well-suited to a woman as odious as Imogen Longhurst! Her growing dislike almost became too obvious when he suddenly took out his fob watch and again looked at the time. Her voice died away and her lips pressed closed. What point was there in explaining anything to this man? He quite palpably was not interested.
    “Have you finished. Miss Conyngham?”
    “There doesn’t appear to be anything else to say, Sir Guy.” It was as close as she dared come to letting him know what she thought.
    His dark glance rested thoughtfully on her. “No doubt there isn’t,” he murmured, “since you’ve been extremely informative and efficient.”
    She doubted if he’d heard a single word she’d said, let alone been able to judge if she’d been either informative or efficient. “Shall we proceed, sir?” she inquired, turning back toward the door, the sudden movement making the candles smoke and stream.
    He said nothing more as she conducted him over the rest of the seminary. She showed him the classrooms, the dining room, the small dormitories where the youngest pupils slept with either Miss Ross or Mlle. Clary to watch over them, and the single bedrooms where the older pupils were allowed much more privacy. The circuit almost completed, she led him through the kitchens, and then the bathhouse, finally taking him to the small punishment room, where Mlle. Clary presided over the dreaded reclining board. The board was where miscreants were sent and ordered to lie motionless for a prescribed time. Leonie had herself been dispatched there only once, and she had found the experience so unpleasant that she had vowed never to be so punished again. Imogen, it went without saying, had never been sent there at all; it also went without saying that Athena Raleigh had spent a great deal of time there, reflecting upon her many sins, and repenting none of them.
    At last the tour was over and they returned to the vestibule. Miss Hart and her guests were still in the visitors’ room: Leonie could hear the low murmur of their voices. She put the candelabrum back upon the table. “I trust you find the seminary to your approval, Sir Guy.”
    “I do, Miss Conyngham, but then, it is hardly likely that I would not approve of the establishment attended by the lady I am to marry.”
    “I think your niece will be very happy here.”
    He gave an ironic laugh. “My dear Miss Conyngham, Stella de Lacey would refuse to be happy in paradise itself at the moment. To be perfectly honest, she may be only twelve years old, but she has recently become a veritable monster, a tyrant, intent only upon having her own way, come what may. She is rebellious, rude, vindictive, and unreasonable, and she has decided to resent the fact that I am shortly to be married. All this manifests itself in a campaign against Imogen, who is completely innocent and does not deserve to be subjected to such a despicable display.”
    Leonie stared at him.
    He gave a faint smile. “You seem at a loss for words, Miss Conyngham.”
    “You surely are not surprised.”
    “No, perhaps I’m not. But believe me, I don’t exaggerate anything. Stella is indeed as horrid and unmanageable as I’ve said.”
    “Has she always been like that?”
    “No, it has been a very recent thing.”
    She looked away, afraid that he might read her thoughts. Recent? Yes, she’d warrant it was, as recent as the arrival of Imogen Longhurst in Stella de Lacey’s life!
    “Miss Conyngham, no matter what you might think of me, I have my niece’s best interests at heart. I’ve tried sweet reason, I’ve tried everything I can think of, but she will not promise good behavior—unless, of course, I agree to end my association with Imogen. That, quite obviously, cannot be, since I am not prepared to be dictated to by a chit of just twelve. I will be the master in my own house, and