No Marriage Of Convenience - No Marriage Of Convenience Part 18
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No Marriage Of Convenience Part 18

He didn't see what she need be so miffed about-he'd only been trying to help her, not embarrass her.

"Mason!" Cousin Felicity called out. "How delightful that you can join us. I was just telling everyone about a disturbing item in the paper, the Duke of Walford's heir is missing, and they propose to drag the river. I was just getting to the good part when Lord Delander arrived. He insisted we continue our break from our lessons with a bit of tea and some cakes he brought over."

Del grinned at the girls, though none of them returned his infectious smile. "Lessons? Female secrets on how to catch us poor unsuspecting men in the parson's mousetrap, eh, Bea? Perhaps Mason and I can help-besides, we might be able to use some help in finding brides." Del grinned at Riley with what was apparently his best rakish endeavor, but she wasn't looking at him, so his efforts were wasted. "Come now," he said to Riley. "What lessons would you recommend to your cousin?"

Riley demurred. "That would depend on what type of bride he seeks."

Mason shifted in his seat as all eyes turned to him.

"Oh, yes, Uncle," Maggie said, with the first show of spirit he'd seen since entering the room. "What sort of bride are you looking for?"

"Rich," Del suggested.

Louisa nodded in agreement."Pretty," Del added, rising to his feet and warming to his subject. "And not too young, I would think. Ican't see your uncle with some simpering miss just out of the schoolroom." He paced around the room."She can't be one of these silly creatures you find everywhere. She'd bore him beyond redemption." Delscratched his chin. "But how to find her?"

"She sounds like that mincing and prancing Dahlia Pindar," Beatrice said.

"Exactly!" Del told her. "There is a perfect heiress for your uncle. Rich and respectable."

"And a regular ninny-hammer," Bea added. "I think she could get lost in a closet."

Mason should have known that Riley would eventually extract her own form of revenge as she took this

moment to turn to him and ask, "And why haven't you swept this veritable paragon off her feet and made

her your countess, Cousin?"

With everyone watching him, their expectant gazes awaiting his answer, Mason shrugged. "It's a little more complicated than that."

Much to his chagrin, Del leapt into the fray. "Then Miss St. Clair," he said to Riley, "you should expand your charm school to include your cousin here, for it seems he needs a bit of prodding if he has any hope of making the illustrious Miss Pindar his bride. We can both help him."

"Such a fanciful notion, Lord Delander," Riley told him. "I had no idea you were such a romantic."

"I am whatever you wish, my dear lady."

Mason groaned at this flattering gallantry.

"You see," Del said, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You haven't the slightest idea how to talk to a

lady."

"And what about you, Lord Delander?" Maggie asked. "What do you seek in a bride?"

At this Del came to a stumbling halt. "Only one thing." He paused dramatically. "She must be able to beat

my mother at piquet." He turned to Riley. "Of course, you play, don't you?"Riley shook her head."Bother that, but it's fairly easy to learn. You'll master it in no time when we are-""Del," Mason interrupted. "How did you find your way in?""What? Give away the location of my secret tunnel so you can fill it in? Add vats of boiling oil to the attic windows?" His friend pointed at a large rent in his breeches and the scuffs in his usually immaculate boots. "But since you ask, I waged my assault on this prison of yours by climbing the garden wall."

Mason smiled. "It looks like the wall won."

Del laughed. "It did. Sneaky tactics, letting the mortar get into such a state of disrepair that the least bit of

weight and it sends one toppling over in a hail of bricks."

"You don't look all that much worse for the experience," Mason told him, accepting the cup of tea Cousin Felicity offered.

"I'll mend," he said woefully. "My only thanks is that your garden is in an equal state of snarl. Those thorny monsters out there someone once called roses broke my fall." To prove his point, he plucked a wicked-looking thorn from his jacket.

"Lord Delander, are you sure you aren't hurt?"This tender inquiry, much to everyone's surprise, came from Bea, who had relinquished her place at the window and now stood beside Del. When she realized all eyes were now on her, she frowned. "Well, that wall is an embarrassment. Lord Delander is lucky his throat wasn't slit in that wretched tangle."

"Huzzah!" Lord Delander said. "I have recruited Beatrice to my side."

At this passionate declaration, Beatrice blushed.

Lord Ashlin took a second glance at his eldest niece.

Bea, blushing? What the devil was that all about?

"What side would that be?" Louisa inquired from her solitary post in the corner, sparing a sly glance at

Bea. There was an undercurrent to her question Mason didn't understand, but he made a note to himself

to inquire after it later.

Del glanced over his shoulder at Louisa. "I would have thought by now your uncle would have informed all of you of my intentions."

"What intentions?" Maggie asked, offering him the plate of cakes and spilling half of them in the process.

Del smiled at the girl and wiped the crumbs off his pants. "Those toward your cousin, of course."

Riley's gaze rolled heavenward.

"Who?" Louisa asked. "Cousin Felicity?"

Del laughed, as did an uneasy Cousin Felicity. "Louisa, you are a sharp one." He turned to Riley. "My

mother always said that one would come to a bad end-watch out for her."

"How is your mother, my lord?" Louisa asked, in tones that sounded as if she hoped the report would be dire.

"Admirable," he told her. "The old dragon is in alt today." He grinned at Riley. "Especially since I told

her of my intentions to wed your dearest Cousin Riley."

Bea sprayed the tea she had been sipping across the room. "Marry her?"

Maggie bounded from the sofa and pounded her sister's back. In between thumps, she glared at Riley.

"As soon as she says yes," he told the wide-eyed sisters.

Riley turned to him and smiled. "My lord, your offer is most kind, but I cannot possibly marry you."

"You can't?" the sisters asked in unison.

"Of course not," she told them. "My first obligation is to you three. The Viscount's offer is generous andkind, but overly optimistic-I would never marry a man I barely knew.""Then I shall just have to remedy that," Del told her. "Tonight you shall accompany my mother and me to Mrs. Evans's musicale. It promises to be a terribly dull affair, I grant you, especially since your cousin will be there, but it will afford you plenty of time to hear all about me from my mother."

"Now that does sound dull," Louisa muttered.

Mason ignored his niece, and told his friend, "I am afraid my cousin's time is taken up with assisting the girls with the preparations for their Season."

Del laughed. "You three? Out for the Season. Now, there's a lark." He started to laugh, but was the only one in the room who found any humor in the situation.

Riley turned to the Viscount and said in a chilling tone, "And why do you say that?""Well, there was the time Bea called the Duchess of Harleton a harl-" he began, then faltered when hisstatement was met with stone-faced resistance. He tried again. "Or when Maggie stumbled in front ofLord Jeremy's prized hunter at the park and sent the skittish creature racing, and Lord Jeremy left on hisa-"

Again his jest faded away as it fell on deaf ears. "Oh, bother," he finally said, turning back to Beatrice."Come there, Bea. You were more fun before you decided to grow up. Remember the larks we used tohave? The time your uncle and I taught you to ride at Sanborn Abbey the summer we were home fromschool? You were just a bit of muslin, but every time you fell off you used that phrase you'd learned fromthe footmen, and then-"

"Oh, you...you...big nodcock," she stammered, then ran from the room, her cheeks flaming.

"Whatever did I say?" Del asked Maggie.

She rose as well. "Bea's right. You're a regular nodcock." She went to follow her sister, though as she

passed in front of Del, she trod heavily on his foot.

The Viscount yelped in pain, but Maggie didn't even bother to spare him so much as an apologeticglance in her race toward the door.For once, Mason doubted that accident could be blamed on his niece's clumsiness.With a great sigh of resignation, Louisa rose, too. "My regards to your mother," she tossed over her shoulder as she sauntered past the puzzled Viscount."Oh dear," Cousin Felicity said, frowning at the girls' sudden departure.Mason noted that the only one who didn't look upset was Riley.Perched on her chair, she stared in the direction Beatrice had fled, a calculated smile on her face.

Chapter 9.

R iley had watched from the library window as Mason and Cousin Felicity strolled down the steps and out toward the waiting carriage.

She could see a young lady inside the elegant barouche, and wondered if this was the infamous Miss Pindar.

Oh, bother, if only she could...Stopping herself short of making that impossible wish, Riley returned to the papers and work she'dbrought to the library. Just because she'd left the theatre didn't mean she could neglect her duties.

But in the warm comfort of the library, Riley soon found her eyes more often shut than open.

What would a little bit of a nap hurt? she thought, curling up on the thick carpet before the fireplace and drifting off into sleep without another thought-until she started to dream.

She was lost in the warrens beyond Covent Garden. She ran and ran until she could barely catch her