Deception (Daughters of Mannerling 3) by M.C. Beaton Read Free Book Online Page A

my lord. Your attention appeared to be caught by the Beverley sisters.’
    He smiled down at her but did not reply.
    ‘Do they live locally?’
    ‘I believe so,’ he said.
    ‘Do they do the Season?’
    ‘Miss Makepeace, I confess to being remarkably ill-informed on the subject of the Beverleys. I suggest you ask one of them all about themselves.’
    Mrs Makepeace, on the other hand, was being very well informed on that very subject by Hedgefield’s prize gossip, Miss Turlow, who had been snubbed by the Beverleys in the days of their wealth. Mrs Makepeace listened with rapt and flattering attention to the tale of this once-proud family. When Miss Turlow had finished, Mrs Makepeace put up her quizzing-glass and studied the sisters. ‘If they are as poor as you say,’ she said, ‘why is it that their gowns have obviously been made for them by one of the finest dressmakers?’
    Miss Turlow knew that she had never seen the girls wear those gowns before but her spite would not allow her to say so. ‘I believe they still have a vast wardrobe from a few years ago,’ she remarked.
    Lady Evans, in the meantime, had realized that whatever game Letitia Trumble was playing she would need to go along with it and not acknowledge her as a friend, but she wondered where she had gone. Miss Trumble had arrived with the Beverley party. But then she had disappeared from view.
    Lady Evans approached Lady Beverley and asked, ‘Where is Miss Trumble?’
    ‘My governess?’ Lady Beverley gave a condescending little laugh. ‘I felt she was a trifle
de trop
and so I sent her to wait in the hall.’
    Lady Beverley had thought she had suffered enough when two guests had approached and had addressed Miss Trumble as Lady Beverley, and so she had sent her away.
    ‘Miss Trumble was invited as a guest, Lady Beverley,’ said old Lady Evans haughtily. ‘In fact, it was because of Miss Trumble’s request that your daughters were invited here at all. Be so good as to remember that!’
    Lady Evans swept off. I must get rid of Miss Trumble, thought Lady Beverley angrily. She is nothing more than a servant. How very odd of Lady Evans! But then she is so very old. Her wits must be wandering.
    Lady Evans went through to the hall. Miss Trumble was sitting on a hard chair, reading a book.
    ‘Letitia,’ hissed Lady Evans, ‘come back to the ballroom immediately. I was forced to remind your employer that it was thanks to you that the Beverleys are here at all.’
    Miss Trumble put away her book in her reticule and stood up and shook down the folds of her gown. ‘How very loyal you are. But I fear Lady Beverley will send me packing.’
    ‘And so . . . and so what is that to you?’
    ‘Humour me. I am fond of my girls.’
    ‘Very well. But it annoys me to see you treated thus.’
    As they walked together towards the ballroom, Miss Trumble said, ‘That is a fine-looking man, the one with the fair hair, the tall one in the black coat and silk knee-breeches with the sapphire stickpin in his cravat.’
    ‘That must be Lord Burfield. He is staying with me. Ah, no, Letitia, I have chosen a very proper young heiress for him.’
    ‘Is he short of funds?’
    ‘On the contrary, and therefore it is safe and suitable that he should marry money.’
    ‘Dear me, what a mercenary world we live in. Ah, here we are and there is my employer looking daggers at me.’
    Old Lady Evans looked amused. ‘If you will insist on wearing a finer gown than your employer, Letitia, it is no wonder the lady dislikes you. I see all your young ladies have partners, but you will find it hard to get husbands for them.’
    ‘I am not so sure about that,’ said Miss Trumble. ‘The two elder girls did well for themselves.’
    Lady Evans noticed that Lord Burfield was dancing again with Prudence and frowned. That made two dances. He could not, therefore, dance with her again, and it was not yet the supper dance.
    Lord Burfield had remarked the startling likeness of the Beverley