The Perks of Being a Beauty by Manda Collins Read Free Book Online Page B

said, not letting her disappointment shine through, “you know that Miss Charlotte Hume says things like that only in an effort to appear witty. And unfortunately they only make her sound the veriest flibbertigibbet. I cannot recall when I’ve heard a sillier sentiment. Unless of course you count the time that Winnie Gregson declared the stars to be God’s daisy chain.”
    Taking a seat next to Harriet, she continued, “You are much too sensible to believe such silliness, are you not? I think that what you need is to simply divert your guests’ attention away from the weather for a bit. If they are too busy enjoying themselves they won’t give a fiddlestick about whether it’s raining or not.”
    “But all of the entertainments we had planned were for outdoors,” Harriet said, puffing out her lower lip in an unconscious impersonation of a thwarted baby. “We can hardly hold an archery contest indoors.”
    “No,” Amelia said with a patience that she’d never have been able to pretend to even six months ago. “But we have the entire house in which to play. Think about the sort of things you used to do as a child on rainy days. What about Hide the Slipper, or Sardines, or Blind Man’s Bluff?”
    Harriet’s lip receded a bit.
    “W-won’t they think that those games are silly?” she asked in a small voice. “After all, we are all grown ladies and gentlemen. We have much more important things to do than play children’s games.”
    Amelia forbore from informing her charge that simply gaining one’s majority did not bequeath one with an automatic seriousness of mind.
    “Of course they won’t think them silly,” she told the younger girl. “In fact, I suspect that some of the gentlemen at the very least will enjoy proving that they can still win at the games they played as boys.”
    Harriet’s lip receded a bit more.
    “I suppose they might consider it to be amusing for a little while,” she admitted. “And children’s games can offer many opportunities for flirtation. Why, Blind Man’s Bluff could be positively scandalous if one were to play it with a truly nefarious purpose.”
    “Does that mean you’ll try some children’s games?” Amelia asked, with a smile. She really did feel for the other girl. Though Harriet had been blessed with every bit of the fortune that Amelia herself had lacked, she had been deprived of the self-possession that might have made her into a truly formidable player on the marriage mart. And because of that, Amelia felt a certain degree of protectiveness for the girl. “I promise you that we will have fun, no matter what happens.”
    Harriet gave a quick nod. “I’ll do it. But we should put the choice of games up to a vote so that the others get a chance to have a say. I don’t want them to be forced to play something that they wouldn’t feel comfortable with.”
    Amelia didn’t argue, though she rather thought that Harriet’s tendency toward giving others their say negated a great deal of the power that she might wield over them. But as it was one of the things about the girl that made Amelia love her, she didn’t argue.
    Twenty minutes later, the young people were all gathered in the drawing room and to Amelia’s surprise, Harriet had taken on the mantle of leader with some degree of finesse.
    “So,” she said to the assembled group, “we have four votes for Blind Man’s Bluff, three votes for Hide the Slipper, and five votes for Sardines. Sardines it is!”
    Amelia exchanged a rueful grin with Quentin. Though they were not the eldest of the group, there was something about their dynamic among the other attendees that made Amelia feel as if they were the chaperones for this party. And since Mr. and Mrs. Smithson had left the group to their own devices, they were, in a sense, the de facto chaperones. Certainly no one would consider the elder Miss Hume, who was as near an example of a featherwit as Amelia had ever seen, or Mr. Wallace, whose idea of