Free The Black Widow by Charlotte Louise Dolan Page B

in the mood to listen to the recriminations and accusations that were bound to ensue when she discovered for herself that her orders had been canceled.
    “Was there anything else you wished to discuss with me besides the unsuitability of my attire?’’
    “Yes, I have invited several friends over for dinner this evening. They have all expressed an eagerness to meet you.”
    “I am sorry to disappoint them, madam, but I have already made my plans for this evening.” He hadn’t actually decided how he would spend the evening, but under no circumstances was he going to let his mother know that. She was too determined to play the matchmaker.
    “Then you must simply cancel them. It lacks but an hour until our guests arrive, and you will quite throw off the numbers if you refuse to oblige me in this small matter.’’
    Demetrius shrugged. “I am afraid that is not possible. You should have consulted me earlier.’’
    “And would you have agreed if I had?”
    “Certainly not,” he said bluntly, “but that would have given you time to arrange for someone in my stead.”
    “I cannot understand why you delight in embarrassing me this way in front of my friends.”
    “You wrong me, madam. I have always done my best to avoid any contact with your friends.”
    “Oh, oh, how can you speak this way to your own mother?” Clutching her hands to her breast, she collapsed against the back of the settee. “What have I done to deserve such ungrateful sons? If your father could only see how you flout my every wish, he would turn over in his grave. That I should have nursed two such vipers to my bosom! It is all that wretched woman’s fault—she has turned you against me!”
    “If by ‘that wretched woman’ you are referring to Miss Prestwich, you might consider inviting her to dine with us. I should be quite agreeable to a dinner party here that included her.’’
    Instantly his mother abandoned her die-away airs. Jumping to her feet, she closed the distance between them and glared up at him. “The Prestwichs may still be acceptable to some people, although they are never invited where there are marriageable sons, but be that as it may, never, never shall I invite any member of that family into my house!’’
    Accustomed as he was to his mother’s dramatic utterances, Demetrius stood his ground without flinching. “I was unaware that you were acquainted with Miss Meribe Prestwich.”
    “I have never been introduced to her, nor do I ever intend to acknowledge her in any way. She is niece to that hateful Miss Phillipa Prestwich, which is enough to condemn her in my eyes. If you only knew what that horrid woman did to my dear brother, you would cast aside your inamorata.”
    She was not precisely his beloved, but Demetrius had no intention of revealing to his mother the exact nature of his relationship with the youngest Miss Prestwich. But on the other hand, his curiosity was definitely aroused. “So what did the aunt do that was so terrible?”
    “I do not actually know the details,” his mother replied, “but whatever she did, it was terrible enough that dear Humphrey’s life was ruined.”
    “Ruined? In what way? He has never complained to me, and he appears to be quite happy with his current situation.’’
    “That is all that you know! Why, that beastly woman is the reason he has remained a bachelor to this day.”
    “You do not think it has merely been my uncle’s fondness for self-indulgence that has kept him from stepping into the parson’s mousetrap?”
    “Now you insult my poor mistreated brother! Oh, I knew you would not understand. You have not an ounce of sensibility.”
    And his mother, he decided, had not a particle of sense. “So far you have given me nothing to understand—you have made only the vaguest of accusations.”
    “Which should be enough if you were only a loving, obedient son. In any case, I cannot tell you what I do not know. If you wish to discover all the sordid particulars,