VIscount Besieged by Elizabeth Bailey Read Free Book Online Page A

him with painful enquiry. ‘You think, then, that he will
include us?’
    Thornbury gave
her a reassuring smile. ‘It certainly did not seem to me that his
lordship gave any indication that he would do otherwise. But,’ he
added carefully as the Dotterells brightened, ‘that can only be my
guess. I do not know the viscount and he will have to speak for
himself.’
    ‘ Which he will, mark my words,’ said Isadora with a kindling
eye. ‘He is nothing if not outspoken.’
    Cousin Matty was
visibly relieved. ‘For my part, he may say anything he chooses, as
long as he provides for me and my poor fatherless
children.’
    Isadora got up
abruptly. ‘He shall do so, Cousin Matty. For if he refuses I
promise you I shall have a great deal to say about it. He will not
withstand my demands.’
    ‘ Oh
no,’ groaned Fanny. ‘If you are to speak for us, Dora, we may as
well abandon hope immediately.’
    Rowland burst
into rude laughter at this, but his mother paid no attention, being
fully taken up with the need, as she evidently believed, to bring
Isadora to her senses.
    ‘ Dora, pray don’t take your usual manner with Lord Roborough.
You will only alienate him, and then where shall we be?’
    ‘ I
will do nothing of the kind,’ snapped Isadora, incensed. ‘Besides,
I have already quarrelled with the wretch—but that was before I
knew who he was. But if you suppose that I have any intention of
kowtowing to him as you and Mama have done, you may think again. I
have already told him that he has no authority over me,
and—’
    ‘ You
did what?’ burst out Fanny.
    ‘ Oh,
Dora, how could you?’ moaned Cousin Matty.
    ‘ And ,’ continued Isadora pointedly, ‘he did not appear
to mind my saying it in the least. In fact, I was quite in charity
with him. So you may make yourself easy.’
    ‘ I am
not in the least easy,’ stated Cousin Matty in a tone of
foreboding. ‘I have the most dreadful presentiments
already.’
    ‘ With
Dora on the loose, Mama,’ chimed in Fanny matter-of-factly, ‘you
could not help but do so. Depend upon it, she will ruin all our
chances.’
    Isadora slammed
out of the room.
    Really, if the
family wanted her to remain in charity with Roborough, they were
going quite the wrong way to work. She could see how it would be.
Nothing but flattery and sycophancy from morning to night. Well,
she was not going to behave in that nauseous fashion. She would
rather die. Ruin all their chances, indeed. Fudge! As if
Roborough—little though she knew him, this much was obvious—would
be taken in by any expression of docility on her part. Had he not
himself said that he liked it better when she railed at him? Well,
if he chose not to assist the Dotterells, rail at him she would,
with a vengeance.
    But, to say
truth, she did not really think he was going to refuse to help
them. She remembered the bitter anger that had slipped from his
control when she had merely suggested that he might turn them out.
Did not that argue for a favourable outcome? And Thornbury believed
he would take responsibility for the whole family, did he
not?
    Excellent, let
him do so. Then she might take to the boards with a clear
conscience. In this, of course, she must be circumspect. If he had
not expressed the idea that it was a pity she would not act out of
her own environment, Isadora might almost have been tempted to
confide in him. For he had thought her acting worthwhile. Her heart
warmed unexpectedly at the remembrance of the compliments he had
paid her. But, she reminded herself, approving of her acting was a
far cry from allowing her to take it up professionally.
    Ladies of her
class simply did not do that, which was why she had not wanted to
appear in Society. No one need know that she had ever been Isadora
Alvescot. As long as no connection was made, no breath of scandal
would redound upon her family. In truth, this was why she needed
the viscount to take care of them all.
    It was one thing
to put herself in that