The Nobody: Signet Regency Romance (InterMix) by Diane Farr Read Free Book Online

sister.”
    Caitlin set her teacup down and stared at her aunt. “Now it is you who are quizzing me! I cannot go to Almack’s. I have never even been presented.”
    She instantly regretted her remark. Just as she feared, Emily began reproaching herself—for the hundredth time. “Oh, Caitie!” she mourned. “I feel dreadful whenever I think of you giving up your place so that I might be presented. I cannot think it right. I know the family could not afford to present us both, but why should I have been presented rather than you? After all—”
    Caitlin pretended to place her hands over her ears, and appealed to the head of the table. “Aunt Harriet, I implore you—! Convince Emily that she is distressing herself to no purpose!”
    “Do not place your elbows on the table, Caitlin,” said Lady Lynwood placidly, applying a generous portion of jam to a crumpet. “And, Emily, your sister is quite right! There is no need for these lamentations. You are eighteen, and that is the perfect age for a first Season. I could not convince your mother to let me bring you both out, since Amabel did not wish me to go out of pocket—such stuff! A choice had to be made, and even Caitlin believed that you should be the one chosen.”
    “Yes,” agreed Caitlin firmly. “I never stirred the slightest interest among the Hertfordshire beaux, so there seemed little point in exhibiting me to the
ton.
”
    Emily cried out again at this, and Lady Lynwood pointed her jam-slathered knife at Caitlin. “Caitlin, really! We are going to exhibit you to the
ton
, and you may stop rolling your eyes at me, for I won’t change my mind! No, how really, Caitlin—there is simply no more to be said on the subject! You are an excessively pretty girl—yes, you are!—and although your hair is very red indeed, I think we need not despair. It is not a
carroty
red, you know, and you are not, thank Heaven, bran-faced—now, whatever have I said to send you into whoops?”
    “I beg your pardon!” gasped Caitlin. “Pray continue. Besides my lack of freckles, what else have we to thank heaven for?”
    “Your height,” replied Lady Lynwood promptly. “You wear clothes very gracefully, Caitlin, and there is much to be said for an elegant air! Of course there are many gentlemen who dislike tallness in a female, but on the whole, I think it rather an advantage. And as for worrying about Almack’s, pooh! An almond for a parrot! How are people to know you have not been presented? Since you are a bit older, it will be assumed you have been ‘out’ for some time. And so you have! Though only in Hertfordshire, of course.”
    Lady Lynwood munched her crumpet reflectively. “We must not become discouraged if you are not an immediate success, my love. In my view, it will be an excellent thing if we do not secure respectable alliances for both of you at once. In fact, I would dislike it excessively! For then I would not be able to invite you next year, you know, and of course it will be
years
before Agnes is old enough. I cannot begin to express to you, my dears, how much I enjoy having you here! I cannot imagine why I never thought of inviting you before.”
    Caitlin hid a smile. She had often heard Mama express that very sentiment! Now that Caitlin was better acquainted with her loveable but scatterbrained aunt, she suspected that Lady Lynwood had remembered her nieces’ existence only because she was moped to death, all alone at Lynwood House. The baronness had been widowed two years ago, and now both her sons were from home; James was off enjoying whatever advantages a very limited Grand Tour could provide a young gentleman in these dangerous times, and little Harry was away at school. Aunt Harriet was far too gregarious to live alone, and Caitlin suspected that putting on her blacks and foregoing the pleasures of last year’s Season had been a severe punishment for her widowed aunt.
    After breakfast, Lady Lynwood and Emily went on a shopping expedition.