Free April Lady by Georgette Heyer Page B

declared. "I should never know a moment's peace! Only think what would happen if Cardross discovered it!"
    "There is that, of course," he admitted. He took a turn about the room, frowning over the problem. "The deuce is in it that I'm not in good odour with the cents-per-cent. I'd raise the wind for you in a trice if the sharks didn't know dashed well how our affairs stand."
    "Moneylenders?" she asked. "I did think of that, only I don't know how to set about borrowing. Do you know, Dy? Will you tell me?"
    The Viscount was not a young man whose conscience was overburdened with scruples, but he did not hesitate to veto this suggestion. "No, I will not!" he said.
    "I know one shouldn't borrow from moneylenders, but in such a case as this—and if you went with me, Dy—"
    "A pretty fellow I should be!" he interrupted indignantly. "Damn it, I ain't a saint, but I ain't such a loose-screw that I'd hand my sister over to one of those bloodsuckers!"
    "Is it so very bad? I didn't know," she said. "Of course I won't go to a moneylender if you say I must not."
    "Well, I do say it. What's more, if you did so, and Cardross discovered it, there would be the devil to pay! You'd a deal better screw up your courage, and tell him the whole now."
    She shook her head, flushing.
    "You know, it queers me to know what you've been doing," said Dysart severely. "It sounds to. me as though you've had a quarrel with him, and set up his back. It ain't my business, but I call it a cork-brained thing to do!"
    "I haven't—it isn't that!" she stammered.
    "You must have done something!" he insisted. "I thought he doted on you!"
    Her eyes lifted quickly to his face. "Did you, Dy? Did you indeed think so?"
    "Of course I did! Well, good God, what would anyone think, when he no sooner clapped eyes on you than nothing would do for him but to pop the question? Lord, it was one of the on-dits of town! Old Cooling told me no one had ever seen him sent to grass before, no matter who set her cap at him. I thought myself he must be touched in his upper works," said the Viscount candidly. "I don't say you ain't a pretty girl, but what there is in you to make a fellow like Cardross marry into our family I'm dashed if I can see!"

"Oh, Dysart!" breathed Nell, trembling. "You're not—you're not roasting me?"
    He stared at her. "Have you got windmills in the head too?" he demanded. "Why the devil should he have offered for you, if he hadn't been head over ears in love with you? You aren't going to tell me you didn't know you'd given him a leveller!"
    "Oh—! Don't say such things! I did think, at first—but Mama told me—explained to me—how it was!"
    "Well, how was it?" said the Viscount impatiently.
    "A—a marriage of convenience," faltered Nell. "He was obliged to marry someone, and—and he liked me better than the other ladies he was acquainted with, and thought I should suit!"
    "If that isn't Mama all over!" exclaimed Dysart. "It was a dashed convenient marriage for us, but if he thought it was convenient to be obliged to pay through the nose for you (which I don't mind telling you my father made him do!), let alone saddling himself with a set of dirty dishes who have been under the hatches for years, he must be a regular cod's head!"
    "Dysart!" she cried, quite horrified.
    "Dirty dishes!" he repeated firmly. "I can't remember when my father last had a feather to fly with, and the lord knows I've never had one myself! In fact, it's my belief we should have been turned-up by now if you hadn't happened to hit Cardross's fancy. It's the only stroke of good fortune that ever came in our way!"
    "I knew—I knew he had made a handsome settlement!"
    Dysart gave a crack of laughter. "Ay, and towed my father out of the River Tick into the bargain!"
    She sprang up, pressing her hands to her hot cheeks. "Oh, and I have been so wickedly extravagant!"
    "No need to fret and fume over that," replied Dysart cheerfully. "They say his fortune knocks Golden Ball's into flinders,