Free False Colours by Georgette Heyer Page B

to suggest it, perhaps, but my situation is a trifle difficult. Surely it can’t be thought improper in me—at my age, and in such circumstances—to receive you alone?’
    ‘Improper! Of course not!’ he said immediately. ‘I shall present myself at—a quarter past eleven? Unless I find a carriage waiting at the door to take up Lady Stavely, when I shall conceal myself behind a lamp-post until I see her drive away.’
    ‘Thus investing a morning-call with the trappings of an intrigue!’ she said, laughing.
    Her attention was then claimed by the cousin who sat on her other hand; and in a very few moments Kit was once more engaged by his hostess.
    When the ladies withdrew, and the cloth was removed from the table, Lord Stavely came to sit beside Kit, unconsciously rescuing him from Mr Lucton, who had formed the same intention. Conversation became general; and as Lucton was too shy to raise his voice amongst so many seniors, and Mr Charles Stavely, in his late forties, had only a casual acquaintance with young Lord Denville, no pitfalls awaited Kit. He would have been happy to have remained in the dining-room for the next hour, but Lord Stavely was under orders not to allow the gentlemen to linger over their wine, and he very soon declared it to be time to join the ladies.
    In the drawing-room, the supposed Lord Denville had inevitably been the subject of animated discussion. Opinions were varied, one party, led by Lady Stavely, extolling his air and address; another warning Cressy that she would be very unwise to marry a man so notoriously volatile; and a third, headed by Lady Ebchester, stating that it was a very good match, and that Cressy, at the age of twenty, and with a dowry of only £25,000, would be a fool to draw back from it.
    This brought Lady Ebchester under the Dowager’s fire. Sitting forward in her chair, and leaning on her ebony cane, the old lady looked like the popular conception of a witch. She fixed her daughter with a gleaming eye, and snapped: ‘Besides what I may leave her!’
    Lady Ebchester was rather taken aback by this, but she said: ‘Oh, well, Mama, that is a matter for you, of course, but you will hardly leave any great sum to Cressy when you have sons who have nearer claims on you. Not to speak of your daughters—though, for my part, I expect nothing, and nor, I dare say, does Eliza. As for Caroline, however, and poor Clara—’
    ‘Oh, pray don’t, Augusta!’ begged Miss Clara Stavely, tears starting to her eyes. ‘So very improper—so disagreeable for dear Cressy!’
    ‘Don’t cry, Aunt!’ said Cressy cheerfully. ‘If Grandmama leaves her fortune to me, I’ll engage to give it back to the family immediately.’
    The Dowager uttered a cackle of mirth. ‘Do you want to start a civil war, girl?’
    ‘Not in the least, ma’am—and if Aunt Augusta doesn’t know that there won’t be any occasion for me to do so, I do!’ retorted Cressy, twinkling at her.
    At this point, the deaf cousin, who had formed a very imperfect impression of what had been said, nodded at Cressy, and stated in the voice of one prepared to go to the stake in defence of her beliefs: ‘Well, dear, I said it before, and I’ll say it again: he’s very handsome!’
    As this declaration coincided with the arrival of the gentlemen, Kit, ushered first into the room by his host, was once more privileged to hear this tribute. He managed to preserve his countenance, but his eyes met Cressy’s across the room, and he was obliged to grip his lips tightly together. Cressy retreated to the end of the room, her shoulders shaking; and the Dowager, having informed the deaf cousin that she was a fool, commanded Kit to come and sit beside her.
    He obeyed her, drawing up a chair. The Dowager tartly adjured Clara not to hang about her, and told the rest of the company that they were at liberty to indulge in their usual bibble-babble. Correctly interpreting this as a prohibition on any attempt to intrude into her