Free A Rogue for All Seasons (Weston Family) by Sara Lindsey Page A

particular about his age or intellect. All she asked in a prospective spouse was that he be even-tempered, treat her and their offspring kindly, and inspire no more than modest affection in her heart. Was that really so much to ask?
    Still, no one would be
hurt
if she danced with Henry again….
    “Oh, the endless waiting!” she fretted to her mother. The Kelton residence wasn’t very far from Lansdowne House, but the line of carriages moved at a snail’s pace. By the time their carriage neared the front of the line, Diana could have walked there and back at least half a dozen times.
    Her mother tweaked one of Diana’s curls. “You are unusually eager tonight. I thought you would beg off once your grandmother took to her bed.”
    “Then I might have been summoned to read to her.” Diana wrinkled her nose. “Do you know, she even objects to the way I read?” She imitated the duchess’s haughty tones. “‘No, Diana dear, you are speaking too quickly. You must learn to e-nun-ci-ate your words. You have had the best governesses money can buy, granddaughter, yet you still sound like a shop girl. That must be your common blood showing.’”
    Her mother drew in a sharp breath. “She said that to you?”
    “No,” Diana admitted. “She’s never said those precise words, but I know that’s what she’s thinking.”
    “Oh, my sweet girl.” Her mother wrapped an arm around Diana’s shoulders. “Believe me, your grandmother found just as many things wrong with me when I was your age. Age has actually gentled her tongue somewhat.”
    “But you’re so perfect!”
    “Hardly.” Her mother laughed bitterly. “I made mistakes, and now my children are made to pay for them. I don’t worry so much about your brother. Alex is happy away at school, or at least he always seems well on those rare instances when we get to see him. As I doubt my brother will marry, or return to England for that matter, it’s likely he will someday inherit the dukedom. No, it’s you I—” She broke off as the coach door opened.
    Diana said nothing as she accepted the footman’s proffered hand and stepped down to the ground, but as they made their way up the front steps she whispered, “Don’t worry, Mama. I have a feeling about tonight. Something good is going to happen.”
    She wondered at her words—wondered if she’d inadvertently cursed herself—when the guests proceeded from the drawing room downstairs to the dining table. Diana had no expectations of sitting next to the most eligible bachelors—no, that honor fell to her hostess’s youngest (and only unmarried) daughter—but she considered mutiny—or perhaps she ought to say
muttony
—when she found herself seated beside Lord Blathersby.
    Baron Finkley was on her other side, and Diana could not say which man she was less pleased to see. Finkley was eighty if he was a day, and when he spoke to her, his eyes never ventured north of her chest. Being next to either man would have been bad enough; together, they bordered on cruel and unusual punishment.
    She was never so glad of the practice of leaving the men to their port and politics as she was tonight. It was all she could do not to rush ahead of her hostess as Lady Kelton led the women upstairs. Diana glanced around, looking for the least conspicuous place to sit for the remainder of the evening, as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
    “Diana!” Her mother’s face glowed with excitement. “Oh, my dear, I think you were right about something good happening tonight. I sat next to the nicest young gentleman—”
    “That makes one of us,” Diana muttered.
    “Sir Samuel is a cousin of Lady Kelton’s, recently arrived from Wiltshire. He is just turned thirty—”
    “Oh, tell me you did not ask his age!”
    Her mother didn’t even have the good grace to look guilty. “The information came up naturally in the course of our conversation. Sir Samuel came into his title a few years ago, but he wanted to spend some time