Free Sussex Summer by Lucy Muir

dreamed of but never really thought to meet: beautiful, charming, witty, and, he felt sure, talented in many ways. Now he was sorry he had planned to return to the country next week. Perhaps he could delay his departure.
    * * * *
    At their marginally fashionable address in Marylebone the next morning, Lord Adrian Blackwood spoke with his sister as she waited for Captain Tremaine to collect her for a walk in the Park.
    "Why are you wasting time on a mere Captain Tremaine, my dear?" drawled Adrian, leaning negligently against the fireplace and tapping his gleaming Hessians with his whip. "He is not even well-favoured."
    Lady Juliette frowned at her brother with irritation.
    "He is heir to a viscountcy, and I have not seen anything better," she replied, the calculating expression in her eyes looking oddly incongruous with the innocent picture she presented in her fresh white muslin. "His appearance is regrettable, but beggars cannot be choosers." She looked around the room, viewing the frayed and worn upholstery of the furniture in their rented town house with distaste.
    "You were supposed to find someone suitable for me and haven't," she continued, an aggrieved edge to her voice. “If you will not find me a rich husband, I must find one for myself.”
    “That, dear sister, is your doing,” Lord Blackwood replied, yawning lazily. "If you had not spent a night on the road in the company of Lord Crawford last Season you would not have cast doubt upon your reputation. Now men are willing to dance attendance upon your beauty, but won't come up to scratch."
    "I told you nothing happened," Lady Juliette fumed, scowling at her brother. "If Lady Parkenham had not chanced to be at the same inn and seen us having supper together in the private parlour, no one would have been the wiser. Spiteful old cat. She always hated me because I outshone her fusby-faced daughter the year of our come-outs."
    Lady Juliette frowned at the memories, lines marring the satin smoothness of her forehead, and then changed from defense to attack.
    "If you had not gambled away what little we had, it would not be necessary for me to marry for money. Speaking of marrying for money, why do you not do so yourself?" she demanded with asperity. "Your reputation is even worse, that is why."
    Lady Juliette paused a moment to glare angrily at her brother, but Lord Blackwood, accustomed to his sister's temper, merely smiled aggravatingly. She looked away, picking up a Worcester figurine of a lady in blue from the table next to her, turning it over and over in her slender hands.
    "Captain Tremaine will have to do. He is well-to-pass if not wealthy. I intend to coax an invitation to his family's estate in Sussex when he returns there. London is thin of company in the summer, and I am unlikely to find anyone better at this date. If you do not wish to accompany me, you may join our esteemed father and sister on the Continent. I cannot afford to rent these lodgings for your convenience."
    Lord Blackwood made no immediate comment. He straightened and walked to the window, pushing aside the grimy draperies with his whip in order to have a better view of the street.
    "I may as well accompany you to Sussex. Perhaps there will be a country heiress who has not heard of my reputation, and you will not have to sacrifice yourself on a mere Captain Tremaine, after all. Here comes your victim now," he added, letting the draperies fall back into place. "I shall have Aunt join you. You had best work fast while he is bemused by your charms and get him safely back to Sussex before someone enlightens him as to your slightly tarnished reputation."
    Lord Blackwood exited with a smile at his glaring sister, who clutched the figurine tightly. Only the fact that there was not enough time to clean up the mess before Captain Tremaine was shown into the drawing room kept her from flinging it at her brother's departing back.
    * * * *
    Jane sighed as she sorted through her father's voluminous