Free Laura Kinsale by The Hidden Heart Page A

He was lonely, as she was, and so they had been friends.
    It was probably just a sign of her general vulgarity and lack of taste that she counted a blockade-runner fairly high on her short list of friends and acquaintances. But at least with Captain Frost, she had not had to weigh every word before she said it. He had listened to her tales without criticism, with respect, even, and when she was finished, he had smiled and shaken his head and asked her if she cared to join his crew and shame them into showing some spirit. It was joking praise, but the look in his eyes when he said it had warmed her inside.
    But that pleasant interlude was over, and now she had to apply herself to the business of finding a proper husband, which seemed to have nothing to do with friendship or respect, and everything to do with title and fortune. Her aunt had already made up a list of eligible gentlemen, and tonight Her Ladyship Terese Collier, the fabulously wealthy heiress of Morrow, would be presented for their perusal.
    With a last pat and a wish for a pleasant evening, the maid declared Tess ready for inspection. Formidable Aunt Katherine—no: dear, kind Aunt Katherine, Tess recited firmly to herself—was waiting in her room for the troops to be assembled. Several of Tess’s cousins were already there: tall, long-nosed Charles and his twin sister Anne, who might have been identical in everything except dress; dreamy Francis, the despair of his parents for his poetical aspirations, and pert Judith, who was exactly Tess’s age and already married and widowed for over a year. Judith would appear at dinner, but not at the ball afterwards, in deference to her situation.
    Tess’s entry caused a well-bred sensation. Francis, theone friend she had made since her arrival in England, professed himself overwhelmed, and even solemn Charles agreed with his twin that Tess looked particularly well this evening. Aunt Katherine nodded a terse approval, in keeping with her square-jawed, militant face and iron-gray hair. She was satisfied that the heathen had been tamed into a lady, or at least the image of one.
    “But I hope, Terese dear,” Aunt Katherine warned, “that you will not mention that distressing trip down the Amazon alone .”
    “I wasn’t alone, Aunt,” Tess said, pricked into speaking when she knew she should have kept her peace.
    Aunt Katherine fanned herself. “Most particularly do not say that you have traveled with a troop of naked savages, if you please. This ball is being given for the sole purpose of introducing you into good society. It has been a great deal of trouble to arrange. Pray do not disappoint your uncle and me.”
    Since Tess knew very well that it was herself, or her estate, that had paid for the ball, the dinner, all the clothes, and the very house they were standing in, this comment provoked a stinging mental reply. Outwardly, she only smiled politely and said, “I shall try my best, Aunt Katherine, but—”
    Tess had been about to say that she could hardly lie if she were asked a direct question, when a new and strident voice interrupted. “Oh, Cousin Tess, if you dare speak of that horrid place you came from, I shall faint, I know it. What will Sir Walter think of us? Mama, you must make her promise!”
    The late arrival, Larice, was engaged to Sir Walter Sitwell. She fixed Tess with a pinched glare from nearsighted blue eyes, her pretty heart-shaped face reddening with emotion at the thought of such a breach. Tess,seeing that the reinforcements had arrived and she was outnumbered, promised faithfully not to mention the Amazon, Brazil, naked savages, or anything remotely connected to them. What she would talk about in their place did not seem to worry anyone but herself.
    Aunt Katherine was calling Tess to task on another point before she had any time to think of suitable topics of conversation. “Terese dear, who is this Mr. Everett that your guardian so high-handedly instructed me to invite? I declare, I