The Lady Travelers Guide To Larceny With A Dashing Stranger. Victoria Alexander

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СКАЧАТЬ would mind but not nearly as much as she would mind your being penniless or having to marry simply to keep body and soul together. She would mind that far more.”

      “As would I,” Willie said wryly then paused. “You wrote me about your Lady Travelers Society, how you and your friends started it and then sold it. But you also said the three of you still play an active role in the society.”

      “Oh my, yes.” Poppy nodded. “Why, we give lectures and produce pamphlets and lead fascinating discussions with our members as well as offer sage advice on the caprices of travel. We are consulting travel advisers.” A smug smile curved her lips. “And we are quite good at it.”

      “I’ve no doubt of that,” Willie said, although she was fairly certain Poppy had never actually traveled to any great extent beyond a few months in Paris as a girl.

      “I must tell you, Wilhelmina, that the most wonderful things in life are often those we least expect. We are having a grand time. Who would have imagined at our age?”

      “No one deserves to have a grand time more than you,” Willie said firmly. “I was hoping, as you and the other ladies are the founders of the society and are still involved in it, that you might assist me in arranging some way to travel to Venice. As inexpensively as possible,” she added quickly. There were still one or two antiquities that had been stored in the attic that might fetch enough to pay at least part of her way to Italy. Although she would have no way to return home.

      “Oh, I haven’t the vaguest idea how to do that, dear. However...” Poppy rose to her feet. “Gwen and Effie might have a thought or two. I have learned through the years that when one of us has no solution to a difficulty, all three of us together come up with the most brilliant ideas.” She nodded firmly. “I had planned on meeting both of them at the Lady Travelers Society offices in an hour or so. We shall put this dilemma to them and we will have a means to get you to Venice in no time at all.”

      “Why, Poppy.” Willie grinned. “You sound most efficient.”

      “I am a woman of business now,” the older woman said primly.

      “Are you indeed?”

      “I am.” Poppy nodded. “And it’s all perfectly legitimate. Why, I’ll have you know, there isn’t even a suggestion of fraud or anything the least bit illegal.”

      Willie stared. “I never would have imagined such a thing.”

      “Oh well...good.” Poppy beamed then her smile dimmed. “Although after the society was purchased by Mr. Forge, Miss Charlotte Granville was put in charge. She’s most efficient, horribly well organized and really rather brilliant. And she’s American, as is Mr. Forge, which is endlessly interesting. I’ve never known an American beyond a casual introduction in passing. Malcolm, however, knew any number of Americans. Quite candid I would say, although with Charlotte one is never sure if she finds you amusing or annoying. It scarcely matters, I suppose. She is usually quite pleasant under even the most trying of circumstances.”

      “I thought you and your friends ran the society.”

      “Oh dear, no. At least not anymore. We are simply figureheads. Consultants and wise purveyors of indispensable travel guidance as it were. It would be absurd for us to try to manage an undertaking of this magnitude.” Poppy started toward the door. “Why, none of us have the least bit of a head for business.”

      * * *

      “YOU HAVE TO ADMIT, Charlotte,” Lady Blodgett said with a knowing look. “Having Lady Bascombe escort a flock of Americans and their daughters on a grand tour is nothing short of brilliant.”

      “I’m not sure brilliant is the word I would use,” Miss Charlotte Granville said with a tolerant smile. No doubt she had heard any number of brilliant ideas from the septuagenarian trio in the past. “And it is hardly even in the realm of a petit tour as opposed to a grand tour. It includes only Paris, Monte Carlo, a few stops along the way in Italy, including Venice and Rome, in barely a month’s time. But it is what they requested.”

      Poppy and her friends had explained that Willie was eager to travel as she was still trying to cope with the unfortunate loss of her husband. Since Willie had abandoned black some time ago, she wasn’t sure Miss Granville was convinced. The older ladies might not have noticed but Willie could see at once that Charlotte Granville was a force to be reckoned with and not someone easily deceived.

      “However, I’m afraid the tour will not come together as expected.” Miss Granville’s brow furrowed in annoyance. “We have already had one mother and daughter withdraw. Oddly enough, it’s the very woman who inquired about a private tour in the first place with specific requests as to what it would include. The others are now uncertain as to whether or not they wish to proceed.” She cast Willie a sympathetic smile. “I am sorry but I am nearly ready to cancel it altogether.”

      “Understandable,” Willie murmured, trying to ignore the sense of utter defeat that knotted her stomach.

      “Oh, that would be a shame,” Mrs. Higginbotham said with a heavy sigh. “I daresay you poor, unfortunate Americans rarely get the opportunity to see those sights that are practically in our own back gardens.”

      “I would suspect the chance to travel in the company of a genuine viscountess is yet another opportunity that rarely comes along for those poor, dear ladies. Pity really.” Poppy glanced at Lady Blodgett. “They don’t have titles in America, do they?”

      “No.” Lady Blodgett shook her head in a mournful manner. “Not a one. Unless I’m mistaken. Charlotte?”

      “No,” Miss Granville said thoughtfully. “We do not have titles.”

      “One always wants what one doesn’t have,” Mrs. Higginbotham said in a wise manner. “It’s the nature of mankind.”

      “But particularly the nature of women,” Poppy said.

      “Are these American mothers and their daughters wealthy?” Lady Blodgett asked brightly.

      Miss Granville nodded. “Our services for a private tour such as this do not come lightly.”

      “But you said there was indecision as to whether or not there would be a tour at all?” Poppy asked.

      Again Miss Granville nodded.

      “I would think the chance to make the acquaintance of a viscountess, perhaps becoming friends during the length of even a short tour, possibly with an eye toward having her at some point introduce their daughters to an earl or even a duke...” Lady Blodgett shrugged. “Well...”

      “And you do know very nearly everyone who is anyone in London society, don’t you, dear?” Poppy cast her an encouraging look.

      “Not everyone, of course.” Willie adopted a confident smile. “But I do have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. I would say that—”

      “And have you traveled widely, Lady Bascombe?” Miss Granville interrupted.

      “Well, I—” Willie began.

      “Goodness, Charlotte,” Lady Blodgett said in a chastising manner. “Lady Bascombe’s husband’s family can trace its heritage back numerous generations. Wilhelmina’s father is an earl with a proud and noble heritage and Wilhelmina herself СКАЧАТЬ