Free The Husband Season by Mary Nichols Page A

are all three beauties of the first order. I am at a loss to choose between you and you must therefore excuse me.’ He bowed to each in turn and made his escape.
    He joined Mark, who was standing a little to one side, making sure everyone was being looked after, ready to send for more dishes of food as those on the table emptied.
    ‘You haven’t lost your touch, I see,’ Mark said, looking towards the trio. ‘Three young ladies hanging on your every word. I fancy there will be three handkerchiefs thrown down ere long.’
    ‘I shall not stoop to pick them up, Mark. I collect I told you, I have no intention of marrying again.’
    * * *
    ‘I wonder how long he will be in town,’ Cassandra mused. ‘Do you think he will come to my ball if I invite him?’
    ‘Oh, so you are going to set your cap at him, are you?’ Sophie said.
    ‘Why not? He is not unhandsome and he has a title.’
    ‘And wealth,’ Lucinda put in.
    ‘How do you know that?’ Sophie demanded.
    ‘I asked Papa and he said he has a vast estate in Yorkshire and owns a woollen mill, as well.’
    ‘Yorkshire. I am sure I should never want to live there,’ Sophie said.
    ‘No doubt he would bring his wife to town as often as she wanted to come,’ Lucinda said.
    ‘You, too, Lucy?’ Sophie queried.
    ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Both of you bowled over by a handsome face and a few compliments.’
    ‘Oh, so you are not, I suppose,’ Cassandra said.
    ‘Of course not. Anyone can learn to pay compliments. Besides he is too old and a widower and I will not play second fiddle to a dead wife.’
    ‘I didn’t know that,’ Lucinda said.
    ‘What does it matter?’ Cassandra was not to be put off. ‘She can’t hurt anyone, can she? I am going to ask Mama to invite him to my come-out ball. He will be duty bound to stand up with me.’
    ‘Then, I wish you joy of him,’ Sophie said.
    She knew she was being silly, but Viscount Kimberley disturbed her more than she was willing to admit. Her embarrassment at finding the man who had rescued her from the soldiers was her brother-in-law’s cousin was profound. She could not treat him like a stranger, could not dismiss the whole incident with a shrug of her shoulders, especially as he had afterwards seen her with Reggie in his phaeton. How much of that would he tell Mark? Mark might tell Jane and she would be fetched home in disgrace. If only tonight had been their first meeting, then she might have felt the same way as her two friends. She envied them. He was not laughing at them.
    She left them to mingle with Mark’s guests and talk to them about the Hadlea Home, praising the work her sister and brother-in-law were doing and holding out the velvet bag Mark had provided to contain donations. Her enthusiasm was catching, and resulted in people perhaps giving more than they intended. Adam noticed it and liked her for it. There was more to Miss Sophie Cavenhurst than met the eye.

Chapter Four
    I n the coming days, Sophie was half afraid to go out riding or in the carriage for fear of encountering Viscount Kimberley again. On the other hand, when she did go out and did not see him, she returned to Mount Street feeling a little jaded, though not for the world would she have admitted it had anything to do with that gentleman.
    She was spared the whist, but went with her aunt to tea parties and drawing-room gatherings, and Lady Cartrose hosted some herself, which Lady Martindale and Mrs Malthouse attended, along with others of her acquaintance. Sophie, Lucinda and Cassandra made a coterie of three who talked for hours and planned their social events in meticulous detail down to the last ribbon for their gowns and how they intended to purport themselves, confiding the hopes they had of the outcome. Cassie was determined to catch the eye of Viscount Kimberley and was deciding on her strategy.
    ‘I shall drop my fan or twist my ankle or something to make him come to my rescue,’ she said one day when the girls were