Love and Other Scandals by Caroline Linden - Love and Other Scandals Read Free Book Online Page A

once she had enthusiastically agreed to some new fashion, only to discover with dismay that it never quite suited her. Plumes, for instance. They only seemed to emphasize her height. There were few things more lowering to a girl’s pride than watching the eyes of a gentleman climb up and up and up her figure, as if he were surveying some monstrous Amazon. “Perhaps without the plume,” she murmured.
    “You don’t like it?” Her mother frowned and looked at the illustration.
    “It might make me look even taller.”
    Lady Bennet turned the magazine from side to side as she pondered the seriousness of that possibility. Joan’s height had always been a matter of concern. Unlike her petite mother, she could look her father in the eye, and was only a few inches shorter than her brother. “Perhaps if Janet puts it in at an angle, like this one. You need something to frame your features.”
    “Perhaps a few more ringlets?”
    “Well, there’s only one way to know. You must try it and see.”
    “Yes.” Joan cheered up a bit as she gazed at the illustration. How wonderful it would be to look so elegant. Her new blue dress was similar in style to this one; perhaps combined with the hairstyle it would render all of her elegant.
    She gave the illustrated beauty a slight nod. A new hairstyle and a new gown probably wouldn’t keep her from spending the evening at the side of the room with the other unmarried and unwanted ladies, but it was worth a try. It would give her something to talk about with her friends, especially since she wouldn’t even have the pleasure of discussing 50 Ways to Sin with them, thanks to Lord Boorish Burke. Her main hope for entertainment would probably be Douglas, who might well arrive thoroughly foxed and bent on being outrageous.
    “Do you really think Douglas will marry Felicity Drummond?” she asked on impulse.
    Her mother turned her head aside and coughed, touching her lips with her handkerchief. “What’s that, dear? Oh. It would be a very good match, and it’s time he took a wife. Felicity is a lovely girl with good connections and a pretty dowry. And he’s shown no interest in other young ladies; there’s no reason he wouldn’t be happy enough with her.” Her attention had already returned to her letter. “Do you disapprove?”
    Joan thought of reminding her mother how dreadful Felicity’s mother was. She thought of asking why Douglas ought to get married now, when he was still as wild and untamed as a bear and obviously had no inclination to marry. It wasn’t as though he needed a wife’s dowry or had expressed a desire to start a family or even any boredom with his current life—which, to Joan’s eyes, seemed to consist mainly of drinking, gambling, and carrying on with actresses and tavern wenches. If not for his devotion to sport, he would likely be a fat, gouty fellow by now.
    But then, it didn’t really matter. Once Mother made up her mind, there was no changing it. At least this time it was Douglas’s future in the crucible and not hers. “No,” she said. “Felicity is lovely.”
    “Good.” Lady Bennet cleared her throat and put down her pen. She touched her throat and coughed again. “Ring for Mrs. Hudson, would you, dear? I feel in need of some tea.”
    Joan got up and rang the bell. She slipped out the door when the housekeeper arrived, and went up to her room since there was nowhere else to go, taking the copy of Ackermann’s with her. She settled onto the chaise near the window and opened the magazine. She skipped the more earnest and scholarly sections about housewifery and history, meant to improve her mind, and read the stories and poems. Idly she flipped through the description of a recent exhibition of paintings. She would have liked to attend such an exhibit, if only she could have. Her mother approved of music but not picture viewing, where any number of immodest scenes might be portrayed under the guise of mythology. Joan had never quite grasped