Annie Burrows by Reforming the Viscount Read Free Book Online Page B

finger, you and your sister both. The way you used to just sit there, waiting until he’d finished his tirade, and then tilt your heads to one side and smile up at him in the full knowledge that he was helpless to refuse you two anything. And he expected me to teach you and Marigold how to behave!’ She flung up her hands in mock horror, causing Rose to giggle.
    ‘Well, I could never teach either of you anything about how to wrap poor unsuspecting males around your fingers, but if you really want to begin a scrapbook,’ she said, turning to the corsage Rose had tossed on to the desk, ‘I can teach you how to preserve flowers.’
    ‘I think you are trying to steer me away from the subject of your own posy,’ Rose observed astutely.
    ‘Yes, because it is painful for me to think about it,’ she admitted. ‘I...well, I did become rather too attached to him.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Rose, immediately contrite. ‘I would not hurt you for the world. And if he really was your first love, and then you had to marry Papa instead...oh...I am sorry. Forgive me?’
    ‘I never said he was my first love,’ she protested, blushing.
    ‘I will not mention him again,’ said Rose, filling Lydia with relief. ‘Though I should love to know who it was. And if he is married now...’
    Lydia winced. She might have known that Rose’s idea of not mentioning the donor of her posy of violets would be to launch immediately into a volley of questions.
    ‘The first thing we need to do,’ said Lydia, firmly changing the subject, ‘is to separate the bunch, so that we can press each flower individually. Although it might be better to select just one bloom, or we will need a dozen scrapbooks. You will have many occasions you may want to commemorate in a similar way.’
    ‘Do you think so?’
    ‘Of course you will. I dare say you already have a pile of tickets and programmes from various events we have attended already.’
    ‘That’s true.’
    ‘But before we start, I am mindful that in a very short while we are likely to have a room full of callers—’ one of whom was bound to be Lord Rothersthorpe, since a man should always call upon his partners from the previous night’s entertainment ‘—and we have not yet discussed which event you would like to attend this evening.’
    Rose beamed at her. ‘That is what I love about you, Mama Lyddy. You never try to dictate to me.’
    ‘What would be the point?’ Lydia pursed her lips. ‘I learned long ago that it is far too much like hard work to attempt to cross you. Besides, I never felt I was old enough to tell you what to do. I feel more like...an older sister, than a mother to you.’ At least, she had until last night, when for the first time Lord Rothersthorpe’s cutting comments had made her feel every inch the chaperon.
    Although she would not, absolutely not be the kind of chaperon he so despised. She was not, and never would be, a dragon, pushing her charge into situations that would make her miserable.
    ‘I shall, of course, give you my advice, but that is all. You must make up your own mind.’
    ‘I only wish I could. About where I want to go tonight, I mean. I...I think,’ she said, with a slight blush, ‘that I shall be able to tell you later, though.’
    ‘Oh?’ It was not like Rose to be so indecisive, but then she’d never come under the influence of a practised charmer like Rothersthorpe before. If she knew anything about Rose, she was not going to declare her intentions about where to go tonight until she’d discovered where he meant to go. She took a penknife and sliced through the ribbon which had held Rose’s corsage together with jerky finality.
    ‘Well, there is no rush,’ she said to Rose as she pulled the corsage apart. ‘It would just be preferable to warn Robert, one way or the other. He has not your love of spontaneity.’
    They spent the next few minutes selecting the best blooms for preservation, finding sheets of blotting paper and dragging the