Free The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig Page B

Oh, yes, it is hasty. There can be no two ways about that."
    "And ill advised," replied Letty decidedly.
    "I said hasty, not ill advised." Mr. Alsworthy contemplated the tassel on his nightcap. "The two are entirely different things."
    "Not in this instance," Letty put in firmly, before her father could go off on a philosophical tangent about the merits of hasty action, as exemplified by the ancients. "This is entirely unnecessary. Don't you see? We'll just put it about that it was Mary in the carriage instead of me. Everyone knows how Lord Pinchingdale feels about her—goodness knows he hasn't exactly been subtle. It's far more believable than his being discovered with me."
    "Truth is stranger than invention?" mused Mr. Alsworthy, who had developed the cheerful ability to turn any situation into an aphorism. "Be that as it may, it won't do. I take it you were seen?"
    "By Percy Ponsonby," retorted Letty. "But Percy Ponsonby is a positive pea-brain. Everyone knows Percy Ponsonby is a positive pea-brain."
    "Nonetheless, he was there on the spot, and that counts for more than intellect in such situations as these."
    "This is the man who leaped out of a second-story window because he thought it seemed like a good idea!"
    "It does make one wonder about the continued survival of the human race, does it not?" When Letty declined to follow him down that particular byway, Mr. Alsworthy recalled himself reluctantly to the situation at hand. "People are willing to believe anything that bears the promise of scandal. And you, my dear, have created rather a nice little scandal for yourself—I know, I know," Mr. Alsworthy said as he raised an admonitory hand, "with the best of intentions."
    "Do you think I was in the wrong?" demanded Letty.
    "I think," said her father gently, "that you reacted the only way that you could, being no other than yourself."
    It wasn't exactly vindication. In fact, it sounded uncomfortably like a kindly worded condemnation.
    "What else was I to do?" protested Letty, planting both hands on the desk as she leaned forward. "Let Mary elope? I couldn't."
    "My point precisely," said her father. While Letty grappled with that, he added, "Pinchingdale is a good man and will deal with you fairly."
    "Fairly! He wants to strangle me!"
    "I often feel so about your mother, but, as you see, we've rattled on these twenty-odd years together."
    Letty looked mutinous. "There's no reason to ruin three lives over a silly mistake."
    Her father leaned forward in his chair, and, placing both hands on the desk, looked at her directly for the first time. The watery eyes, magnified by spectacles, weakened by reading by candlelight, regarded her kindly, and Letty found herself remembering a million other interludes before her father's desk, a million times she had come to him with a household problem or an amusing anecdote or just for the comfort of his gentle, detached voice after her mother's shrieks and Mary's mercurial moods. For all his vagaries and absentness, she knew he loved her, and she believed, with the last desperate hope of the child she had been, that Papa couldn't possibly let anything bad happen.
    "Be kind to your brother and sisters when you are a vis-countess."
    There were times when speaking with her father was quite as maddening as dealing with her mother.
    "I am not going to be a viscountess."
    "I don't see that you have much choice in the matter, my dear. When one marries a viscount, the title tends to follow."
    "What about Mary?"
    "In as much as bigamy continues to be frowned upon, one assumes that she will not be marrying the viscount."
    "Papa!"
    "Well, my dear, if you persist in wearying me with inconsequentialities in the wee hours of the night, you must resign yourself to being wearied in turn. Although I must say "
    "Yes?" Letty urged hopefully.
    "I have frequently wondered why they are commonly called 'wee,' when these nocturnal hours always seem to stretch on longer than all the rest put together. Have you