Free Amanda Scott - [Dangerous 03] by Dangerous Illusions

doubted that her sister would agree.
    Susan laughed. “Lord Penthorpe is very large and handsome in a rugged sort of way, Nance, and I think Daintry likes him more than she would have us believe. I cannot think why I never noticed him in London, you know, for although Lord Tattersal’s son was still alive at the time of my come-out, and Penthorpe was thus quite ineligible, one would think we’d have noted him before he joined Wellington’s army, for he has a vast air of command. He even stood up to Papa when Papa wanted him to stay here.”
    “Don’t he mean to stay? Why not?”
    While Nance tidied Daintry’s unruly curls into a semblance of order, Susan explained. “He is staying with friends in the neighborhood, and I can tell you, Papa is none too happy about that, for his friends are at Deverill Court, of all places.”
    “Susan.” Daintry said no more than her name, but Susan flushed to the roots of her hair and looked down at her hands.
    Nance said, “Now don’t be scolding her, Miss Daintry. I’d have learned it all soon enough, if not from one of the maids, then from Annie, since our cousin Sarah works days at the Court.” Setting the hairbrush on the dressing table, she picked up the hat, a confection of scarlet silk fashionably decked with an assortment of plumes, ribbons, and black Naples lace, and set it carefully atop her mistress’s dusky curls, anchoring it with a jeweled brass hatpin. Surveying the result, she said, “Best you tell me the facts yourself, so as when some fool begins telling fairy tales in the servants’ hall, I can set him straight.”
    “You will do no such thing, Nance,” Daintry said, meeting her gaze in the mirror and holding it.
    Flushing even more brightly than Susan had, Nance muttered, “No, o’ course I won’t. I know better than to discuss my betters, and so you should know, miss.”
    “I do hope so, Nance, and that you will refrain from discussing them even with Annie, since she no longer works here herself. You may go now. I will ring for you when I return.”
    Without another word, pausing only long enough to collect the clothes Daintry had discarded, Nance left the room.
    Susan said, “You’ve upset her.”
    “Nonsense,” Daintry said, peering into the mirror and trying to decide if the tilt of her hat was as becoming as it might be. Then, realizing that she could not possibly be doing such a thing on Charley’s or Melissa’s account, she turned to face her sister. “I cannot imagine why you would think I had upset Nance. She is not so easily daunted. When next I see her, she will be scolding me for something or other. You know she will.”
    Susan smiled. “You are right, I suppose.”
    “I am. Just because you turn tail whenever anyone looks slantwise at you does not mean that everyone else does.”
    “Do I do that?”
    “You do.”
    Susan bit her lower lip. “I don’t mean to, but I do not like loud voices, and I cannot bear to make people angry. And you—Well, you do become so very …”
    Daintry chuckled and, getting to her feet, moved to hug Susan. “I do, don’t I? Threw my first temper tantrum before I was three, got my own way, and never looked back.”
    Susan shuddered. “Which just goes to show how different things were for you than for me. The one time I told Mama that I would do something she had told me I could not do, she snatched me up across her lap and beat me with her hairbrush till I screamed. That was not the only time, either, I can tell you.”
    Daintry grimaced. “She never did such a thing after Aunt Ophelia came to live with us, did she?”
    “Not like that.” Susan sighed. “But I never stopped being afraid she might. With you, it was so different. Even Papa—”
    “Oh, come now,” Daintry said, chuckling, “you are not going to say Papa never punished me, for you know perfectly well—”
    “Oh, I know he did, but he never seemed to become so angry with you as he did with me—or with Charles, for that