Venetia by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page B

keep her own counsel.
    As matters turned out she was heartily glad of it. It was Aubrey who first spoke of  Damerel‟s return, but as he had very little interest in his neighbours and none at all in a man he  had never laid eyes on, he did so quite casually, saying as he sat down to dinner that day: “Oh,  by the by! I heard in the village that Damerel‟s back again—but without Paphians! Alone, in  fact.”
    “What, no scandal-broth brewing? That won‟t please the quizzy ones! I wonder what  brings him?”
    “Business, I should think,” replied Aubrey indifferently. “High time he did look into his  affairs here.”
    She agreed, but did not pursue the topic. It was to be raised again, though not by Aubrey.  Such an exciting piece of news naturally spread rapidly over the district, and before nightfall  both Nurse and Mrs. Gurnard, forced into temporary alliance, had impressed upon Venetia the  need for her to behave with the greatest circumspection. On no account must she step beyond the  garden without an escort. There was no telling what might happen to her if she didn‟t do as she  was bid, said Nurse darkly.
    Venetia soothed the alarms of these two well-wishers; but when Edward Yardley came to

    Undershaw on the following day she was never nearer losing her temper with him.
    “I daresay he won‟t remain at the Priory above a day or two, but while he is here it will be best for you to discontinue your solitary walks,” Edward said, with a calm assumption of authority which she found so irritating that she was obliged to choke down a hasty retort. “You know,” he added, with a wry smile, “that I have never liked that custom of yours.”
    Oswald Denny visited her too, but the form his solicitude took was a dramatic assurance that if Damerel should dare to molest her he would know how to answer “the fellow”. The significant laying of his hand upon an imaginary sword-hilt was too much for Venetia‟s gravity: she went into a peal of laughter, which provoked him to exclaim: “You laugh, but I‟ve lived where they hold life cheap! I promise you I should have no compunction in calling this fellow out, were he to offer you the smallest affront!”
    After this Venetia was not at all surprised when, two days later, the Dennys‟ barouche-landau disgorged Lady Denny at Undershaw. But it soon transpired that her ladyship‟s object was not so much to warn her young friend to beware of encountering a notorious rake as to enjoy a comfortable gossip about him. She had actually spoken to him! Well, more than that: Sir John, meeting him by chance, had seized the opportunity to try if he could not win his support over some matter of parish business; and finding him perfectly amiable, had brought him back to  Ebbersley, further to discuss the affair, and had ended by inviting him to eat luncheon there.
    “You may imagine my amazement when in they both walked! I must own, my love, that I was not quite pleased, for Clara and Emily were both sitting with me, and although Clara is not, I fancy, very likely to have her head turned, Emily is at just that age when girls fall in love with the most ineligible men. However, there‟s no fear of that, as it turns out: the girls both declared there was never anything more disappointing, for he is quite old, and not at all handsome!”
    “ Old ?” Venetia exclaimed involuntarily. “Well, so he seemed to the  girls,” Lady Denny explained. “He can‟t be above forty, I suppose, if he‟s as much as that. I am not perfectly sure—when he was a child he was scarcely ever at the Priory, you know, because Lady Damerel had the greatest dislike of Yorkshire, and never would come here, except when they had parties for the races. You wouldn‟t remember, my dear, but she was a very proud, disagreeable woman—and I   will   say this for her son: he seems not to be at all top-lofty—not, of course, that he has the least occasion to hold up his nose! Except that the