Free Frederica by Georgette Heyer Page A

appear at my ball. I am strongly of the opinion, too, that your aunt should be prevailed upon to accompany you. Since you are not living under my sister’s roof, it would seem strangely particular if no respectable guardian were to be seen. Her eccentricity need not trouble you—”
    “It doesn’t!” interjected Frederica.
    “—for eccentrics are all the rage,” he continued.
    “Well, it wouldn’t trouble me if they were not. But I can’t help thinking that your sister may not agree to this scheme.”
    The glint in his eyes became more pronounced. “She will! “he said.
    “You can’t know that!” Frederica argued.
    “Believe me, I do know it.”
    “No you don’t, for you’ve only this instant thought of it yourself,” said Frederica bluntly. “It’s all very well to be so top-lofty, but unless your niece is also a diamond, as you phrase it, Charis will quite outshine her! What mother would consent to bring out her daughter in Charis’s company?”
    A smile flickered on his mouth, but that was the only sign vouchsafed her that he was attending to her. He took a pinch of snuff, and said, as he shut his box: “I’ll accept the relationship between us—cousin!—but it’s not enough. You suggested that I should pose as your guardian: very well! let us say that your father commended you to my care. Now, why should he have done so?”
    “Well, he did say that you were the best of his family,” offered Frederica.
    “That won’t fadge! My sisters, I’ll go bail, know as well as I do how remote is the connection between us! Some better reason must be found to satisfy their curiosity.”
    Entering into the spirit of this, Frederica said: “Papa once did you a—a signal service, which you have never till now been able to repay!”
    “ What service?” asked his lordship sceptically.
    “That,” returned Frederica, with aplomb, “is something you prefer not to divulge— particularly to your sisters!”
    “Oh, very good!” he approved, the disquieting glint in his eyes yielding to genuine amusement. “I feel myself to be under an obligation to him, and for that reason have assumed the guardianship of his children.” He caught the speculative gleam in her eyes, and his brows rose. “Well?”
    “I was merely thinking—cousin!—that if you mean to become our guardian it will be more proper for you to find a suitable tutor for Jessamy and for Felix than for me to do so!”
    “I know nothing about such matters—and my guardianship will be quite unofficial!”
    “You may depend upon that !”said Frederica. “But I see no reason why you shouldn’t be useful!”
    “May I remind you that I have consented to introduce you to the ton? There my usefulness will stop!”
    “No, how can it? If you mean to set it about that you think yourself in honour bound to protect us, you must do something besides inviting Charis and me to a ball in your house! To be sure, I am very grateful to you for that—though you wouldn’t have done it if Charis hadn’t bowled you out!—but—”
    “Charis,” he interrupted, “is a very beautiful girl—possibly the most beautiful girl I have yet encountered—but if you imagine that I shall invite her to the ball because I lost my heart to her you are wide of the mark, Cousin Frederica!”
    “I must say I hope you won’t do that,” she replied, looking a little troubled. “You are much too old for her, you know!”
    “Very true!” he retorted. “She being much too young for me!”
    “Of course she is!” Frederica agreed. “So why did you decide suddenly to invite us?”
    “That, cousin, I do not propose to tell you.”
    She considered him, a gathering frown on her brow, her unwavering gaze searching his face. She was puzzled by him. She had not, at the outset, been favourably impressed: his figure was good, his tailoring exquisite, and his countenance, though not handsome, distinguished; but she had thought that his manner held too much height, and that