No Marriage Of Convenience - No Marriage Of Convenience Part 25
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No Marriage Of Convenience Part 25

Her cheeks must be flaming, she thought, for her entire body seemed heated.

The moment the girls passed, she stepped out of his shadow. "Excuse me," she murmured.

"Quite all right," he replied just as quietly.

She dared a glance over her shoulder to see if their shared touch had ruffled his composure as it had

hers. But much to her chagrin, he stood stoically behind her, his features revealing nothing but that of a hint of impatience behind his scholarly spectacles. Nowhere in sight was the devil-may-care rake who'd so audaciously taken her into his arms and kissed her senseless.

Riley ground her teeth together. What was she becoming when the merest touch from this man turned her

into a puddle of distraction?

"Well dash it," Lord Delander complained, as Mason showed him toward the door. "I won't be deterred from my quest, Miss Riley. I shall rescue you from this prison."

As Belton closed the door behind the persistent Viscount, Riley started to dart up the stairs behind the girls.

"Madame," Mason called out. "If I could have but a moment of your time."

Madame. Riley cringed. So they were back to that...

Steeling herself for another lecture on circumstances that were hardly her fault, she turned around on the stairs and marched back to the last step before the foyer.

As the pair argued about the problems presented by Del, Cousin Felicity and Aggie stood overhead on the balcony.

"They make a lovely couple," Cousin Felicity mused.

"Sound like a pair of old married people down there," Aggie said with a shudder. "I fear your cousin and my dear girl are more alike than either of them would care to admit."

"I just hope they will figure it out before it is too late."

Chapter 11.

"O h, Mason," Cousin Felicity wailed as she burst into his study. "I had nothing to do with this! Nothing!"

The total of the long column of numbers he had almost finished tallying slipped away, fleeing his mind as if frightened away by Cousin Felicity's histrionics. He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. This was what he got for thinking he could take control of his life.

"Oh, Mason," she wailed. "This is a disaster."

He sighed. Now what?

Cousin Felicity rushed to his side, handkerchief in hand. "What could I do?" she whispered. She glanced

at the door, her fingers plucking at the linen square. "She came to call. I couldn't have Belton send heraway-especially since she came with him, and now what are we to do with them?"

Mason was afraid to ask. "Who came, Cousin?"

"Lord Ashlin," an imperious voice called from the foyer below. "Where are your manners? One does not keep a lady of my advanced age idling about one's foyer like some tradesman."

Mason cringed at each strident note.

Cousin Felicity had been right to act as if the French were landing. For if the French rabble ever dared cross the Channel and storm the British shores, England had one thing not even they would dare cross.

Lady Delander.

"What is that dreadful noise?" Lady Delander complained, looking up at the ceiling as if the very plaster offended her.

"Dancing lessons," Mason said, offering the most plausible answer to cover for the rehearsal taking place in the ballroom overhead. "The girls are practicing for their upcoming Season."

"What are they wearing?" she asked, frowning overhead. "Clogs?"

Mason laughed for a few seconds, but when no one else joined in, he stopped, wondering how his day could get any worse.

Not only was he entertaining Lady Delander, but also her brother, the Duke of Everton-while abovestairs the entire house shook with what he assumed was the pirate battle from the third act.

Mason had tried his best to steer his guests to Cousin Felicity's parlor, which was on the other side of thehouse and as far from the Queen's Gate players as he could get them without entertaining them in thecellar, but Del's mother had been adamant about being taken to the best room in the house.

"Besides," Lady Delander had said, as she'd led the way to the Green Salon, "I always envied your mother this room. It has such a lovely view of her garden."

Once everyone had been ensconced in the salon, Cousin Felicity had ordered refreshments brought around, while Mason sent Belton to notify "Cousin Riley" of their visitors.

Upstairs the racket continued unabated, as several large claps of homemade thunder reverberated through the ceiling.

The Dowager jumped in her seat. "Gracious heavens! What heathen ritual are they dancing up there?"

Mason glanced at Cousin Felicity, who suggested, "Perhaps the pianoforte is out of tune."

"Best you see that instrument repaired, my lord," Lady Delander said. "Those girls will be deaf before the week is out. I say that instrument should be silenced immediately."

As if in answer to Lady Delander's edict, the ballroom stilled, the rehearsal coming to a sudden halt.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief. Obviously Belton had reached Riley and informed her of the impending disaster they were facing.

"There was quite a parade of unusual people through the Square and into your house this morning, Lord

Ashlin," Lady Delander commented."We're having some work done around the house," Mason replied."Rather odd workers," she sniffed. "It looked like a veritable circus.""We've also retained some tutors for the girls," Cousin Felicity filled in when Lady Delander continued to look suspicious. "The fashions of these French dancing masters." Cousin Felicity rolled her gaze upwards

as if she didn't know what the world was coming to.

"Hmm," Lady Delander mused, eyeing them both carefully before she said, "Wherever is this cousin of yours, Lord Ashlin? When I was a young girl, I would never have been so rude as to keep callers waiting for hours on end."

Mason forced a smile on his face. "I can't imagine what is delaying her."

"You said she would be expecting me," Lady Delander directed this complaint at her son, whose lovesick gaze remained fixed on the doorway. "I am unused to waiting for anyone."

"Now Josephine," the Duke said to his sister. "Leave off on the poor girl. She may be nervous about

meeting you."

Lady Delander straightened. "Nervous about meeting me? Ridiculous! Whatever has the girl to worry about?"

"Being eaten alive," Mason muttered under his breath.

"Mother," Del said, "I am sure Riley wants to make the best impression possible. After all, you'll be her

mother-in-law."

"We'll see about that!" the old girl snapped. "Lord Ashlin, my brother and I were trying to figure this outyesterday, and I found it most vexing. However is this young lady related to you?""Uh, she's...well, it's...it's complicated," he said. He momentarily dashed around his family tree trying to find a logical branch from which to pluck Riley and one with which the Dowager might not be familiar.

"Do you recall my grandfather's youngest brother?""Henry?" she asked. "That scamp. Ran off with Lord Middlewood's daughter. A poor match if everthere was one. But you can't tell me this Riley is related through that line-your great uncle and his wife had only daughters, and they never married. Inherited their looks and temperament from those uppity

Middlewoods." The lady nodded, as if that was enough said about that unfortunate connection.

"Did I say youngest brother?" Mason corrected, cursing the Dowager for her steel-trap memory and intimate knowledge of the ton. "I meant next-to-youngest brother."

"Who, John?" The Dowager smiled. "Now there was a dashing man. I remember seeing him once at a ball in his regimentals. A major or a lieutenant-colonel? Do you remember him, George?"

"Barely," the Duke replied. "Went overseas. Don't think he ever came home."Mason sighed with relief. "Yes, that's right. He never came home. Riley is descended from Major St.Clair's line."

The Dowager's eyes narrowed, like those of a ferret after a rat. "Indeed. Most peculiar indeed that no

one knew of her until now."