The Chocolate Debutante by M. C. Beaton Read Free Book Online

park she became aware of the commotion Susan’s appearance was creating. Gentlemen were standing up precariously in their carriages to get a better look. Susan recognized Lord Ampleforth and smiled radiantly and he clutched his heart. His horse backed suddenly and he fell back in his carriage with his feet in the air. Harriet assumed Susan had remembered Lord Ampleforth from the inn courtyard, but Susan, sitting by the window when Harriet was out on calls, had seen him walking past almost every day.
     
    Harriet felt a lot of her anxieties easing. Susan would surely be engaged to be married almost as soon as the Season started, and then she could return to her old ways. Yet, she was enjoying her new clothes and her busy social life, but the last visit from her friends was a sour memory. Could it be that she, the intelligent and independent Miss Tremayne, had been deluding herself? She had an uneasy feeling that the
real
bluestockings might find them all rather pathetic. But all this did was to give her a stab of disloyalty. She had spent many happy hours with Miss Barncastle and the rest.
     
    And then she saw a gentleman driving toward her and promptly forgot about anyone and everything else. It was Lord Dangerfield. He slowed his team to a halt, and Harriet reined in her horse so that both carriages were alongside each other. He raised his hat. “Miss Tremayne, I hardly recognized you,” he said.
     
    “Am I so much changed?”
     
    “Very much for the better.”
     
    He looked at Susan and gave a slow smile. “Will you not introduce me to Griselda?”
     
    Harriet’s heart plunged sickeningly. “My niece, Miss Susan Colville, Susan, Lord Dangerfield.”
     
    Susan flashed that brilliant smile of hers.
     
    “London has seen nothing like you, Miss Colville,” said the earl. “You are already breaking hearts right, left, and center.”
     
    “So it would appear,” said Susan with her faint lisp. “Do you think I will be all the rage?”
     
    “Undoubtedly.”
     
    “Then, that is good. For my aunt will get me off her hands very soon and she can be comfortable again. Aunt Harriet is not of a frivolous nature.”
     
    His eyes sparkled with laughter. “Is Miss Tremayne
very
strict?”
     
    “Oh, no. But Aunt Harriet has had a most fatiguing time what with having to teach me to read and write and choose clothes for me and go on calls and all that sort of thing.”
     
    “You could not read and write before your aunt took you in hand?”
     
    Susan gave a gurgle of laughter. “No, is it not shocking?”
     
    “So now that you are literate and modishly gowned, all you have to do is look forward to all the balls and parties.”
     
    “I suppose so. We are to go to the Marchioness of Trowbridge’s ball. Does she keep a good table?”
     
    “Very good, Miss Colville.”
     
    “Susan,” muttered Harriet warningly, but Susan appeared not to hear.
     
    “I mean, does she have good confectionery?”
     
    “Gunter’s will probably be doing the catering, and there will be ices and all sorts of delights.”
     
    “Then I shall look forward to it. And you must dance with Aunt Harriet, my lord, for she has such a pretty ball gown and will look much too dashing to be confined to the rows of dowagers and chaperones. Besides, you and Aunt are of an age, I should think.”
     
    “It will be my pleasure,” said the earl, ignoring the fulminating looks Harriet was casting on her niece. “I shall call on you, Miss Tremayne.”
     
    He touched his hat and drove on.
     
    “Susan!” said Harriet furiously. “Never again solicit any gentleman to give me a dance, and never, ever comment on his age.”
     
    Susan sighed. “Such a lot to learn,” she said. “Had we not better move on? Have you noticed how everyone stares? Most rude.”
     
    But another carriage had stopped beside them. Harriet recognized Mrs. Courtney, one of the hostesses Bertha had encouraged her to cultivate. A pleasant-looking young man was with