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

Caitlin, declining the treat, escaped to the morning room. She needed to write a long-overdue letter to Mama. She also needed to cudgel her brain to come up with a way to neutralize the effects of her social ostracism. For surely, once Serena cut her acquaintance, Caitlin would find herself on the fringes of Society. She was certain that she, at least, would never cross the sacred threshold of Almack’s. Would Emily be exiled with her? She was staring sadly out the window with the ink drying on her pen when, to her astonishment, Stubbs announced Lady Serena Kilverton.

Chapter V
    S erena rushed impetuously into the morning room, barely waiting until Stubbs had shut the door before casting herself into Caitlin’s arms and giving her a quick, fierce hug. She burst out in her honest, unaffected way with: “Caitlin, you heard her, didn’t you? I shall never forgive Elizabeth. Never!”
    Caitlin felt tears of mingled relief and shame springing to her eyes. She had underestimated her friend. She gave a shaky little laugh and tried to speak lightly. “Serena, you goose! I might have known you would fly in the face of anyone’s advice, however well-intentioned it was.”
    Serena sniffed disdainfully. “You certainly might have known I would fly in the face of
that
advice, at any rate. Did you think I would tamely agree to distance myself from you? I am not so henhearted!” She tossed her muff and reticule onto a nearby sofa and flung herself into its cushioned depths. “Now, Caitlin, confess: you did not expect to see me today.”
    “Well, no,” admitted Caitlin. She sank onto a chair across from her friend, and managed a wavering smile. “But I must say, Serena—I am very glad to see you!”
    Serena’s eyes snapped dangerously. Her face was too pretty and mischievous to achieve malevolence, but she did acquire something like the aspect of a fierce kitten. “That—that
shrew
! How could you believe I would listen to her? Really, Caitlin, I don’t know what you deserve!”
    “I would not have blamed you for cutting the connection, so do not eat me!” Caitlin found she could not meet her friend’s gaze and looked down at her hands, forcing her words past a sudden constriction in her throat. “It’s all very well to say you cannot forgive Lady Elizabeth, but according to her own lights she was quite right. I’m sure she meant nothing but kindness in warning you away.”
    “Elizabeth is an ill-natured harpy!” declared Serena, bouncing indignantly upright on the sofa. “And I won’t have you defending her!”
    Caitlin’s cheeks grew hot. “But my behavior last night was enough to give any well-bred person a disgust of me. I walked off without a word to anyone—left your mother a
message
—oh, I am covered with shame whenever I think of it!”
    “Nonsense. You behaved beautifully until Elizabeth uttered those unhandsome remarks. And you needn’t tell me you overheard them by accident!”
    “Thank you,” said Caitlin, with difficulty. “But really, Serena, you must not encourage me in such shocking impropriety! I don’t wonder at it that Lady Elizabeth thought me a vulgar upstart. After all, she is the Lady Elizabeth Delacourt, and I am the veriest nobody.”
    Serena’s eyes flashed. “Fiddle! You are a niece of Lady Lynwood and cousin to Baron Lynwood. A nobody, indeed! I defy anyone to call you so in my presence!”
    Warmhearted Serena was clearly ready to do battle for her friend. Caitlin was touched. Trying for a lighter note, she responded, “What a pity I did not stay on the terrace long enough to hear your response to Lady Elizabeth’s amiable warnings! Once you had proved you were as rag-mannered as I, I would have been quite comfortable again.”
    Serena giggled. “Well, she is enough to try the patience of a saint! I do wish Richard had offered for Maria Carleton, or Anne Markham. Heaven knows they threw out enough lures! And although poor Maria is sadly fat, and Anne has more hair than