The Romance by M. C. Beaton, Marion Chesney Read Free Book Online

simpering miss?’
    ‘I have heard that Miss Belinda has a sharp brain and likes to talk of politics, women’s rights, and military matters,’ remarked Gurney, a plump, easy-going gentleman.
    ‘You amaze me. I thought her the most empty-headed simpering miss I had ever comeacross. But then, I also heard of the Beverleys’ ambitions to regain Mannerling, their old home. So perhaps Miss Belinda was only simpering and ogling to ensnare Saint Clair.’ He studied Belinda curiously. He noticed that she did not have the disconsolate look of most wallflowers. She sat calmly, the many flounces of her muslin gown cascading to her small feet. She had a little smile on her mouth as she watched her sister.
    She intrigued him. He would try to secure her for the supper dance and see which face she presented to him.
    To his surprise, when he bowed before her and asked her to dance, a little flash of dislike darted like a fish at the back of her beautiful eyes before they became a polite blank. Belinda did not want to dance with this man who had mocked her. But, she thought rapidly, if she refused him then the laws of society decreed that she would not be able to dance with anyone else and she would have to join her mother at the supper-table and listen to her seemingly endless list of complaints and disappointments. After what seemed to him an unconscionable length of time, although in fact it was only a few moments, Belinda rose and curtsied and allowed him to lead her into the set of a country dance.
    She danced beautifully but did not try to converse. At the end of the dance, he held out his arm. She placed her gloved fingertipsdelicately on it and he led her into the supper-room.
    On the way in, Belinda nodded or exchanged greetings with acquaintances. Finally, when they were seated and food and wine had been served to them, he said, ‘Are you still bored by the Season, Miss Beverley?’
    She regarded him coolly. ‘I am not so much bored, my lord, as bewildered and depressed.’
    ‘Indeed! Why?’
    ‘It is like being part of a pretty auction with myself as one of the cows, waiting for a bidder.’
    ‘You mean you feel you must find a husband?’
    Her beautiful mouth curled in a mocking smile. ‘Why not? This is what all this charade is about.’
    ‘I do not like the picture of the cattle market. Inelegant.’
    ‘Then perhaps we are like elaborately dressed dolls on the toy-shop shelf waiting for a buyer.’
    ‘I was not aware you were a cynic.’
    ‘Believe me, sir, I am all things that are unfashionable. One of them is that I have a very healthy appetite.’
    ‘And I am stopping you eating by my questions? Fall to, Miss Beverley. I shall not disturb you until you are chopped and watered.’
    With mixed feelings of pique and amusement, he watched the fair Belinda settledown to enjoy her food.
    At last he said, ‘May I speak now?’
    ‘If you wish.’
    ‘Are you usually so blunt?’
    ‘Not always. If I am hunting, I can be quite empty-headed and frivolous.’
    ‘Then I should be relieved that I am obviously not one of your quarries. But why? I am titled and rich and not deformed.’
    ‘You do not have the necessary requirement, my lord.’
    His strange eyes flashed with anger. ‘The necessary requirement being Mannerling.’
    ‘Ah, you have heard all the old Beverley scandals,’ she said lightly. ‘Who has not? And you are shocked and disgusted at such unmaidenly behaviour. Think of your own house and lands, my lord. If both were taken from you, would you not do everything in your power to reclaim them?’
    ‘Of course. But I am a man.’
    Belinda regarded him seriously. ‘Think of what you have just said. Does it not strike you as ridiculous? I confess when I go to the play to have much sympathy with old Shylock. When he begins his famous speech, ‘When you prick us, do we not bleed?’ he is saying, ‘Am I not a human being with human feelings just like you?’
    He gave a reluctant laugh. ‘You must admit