Stick Shift. Mary Leo

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      ‘What...’ she panted ‘...what do you plan to tell my father?’

      That brought him to a dead halt. She caught up with him, and stepped in front, barring his path. Though she need not have done. He did need a moment to come up with a story that would satisfy an outraged father, and also prevent their union becoming fodder for scurrilous gossip.

      He glared up at the bulk of the immense house Lady Julia’s father owned. Light and laughter spilled from its windows. The laughter of the rich, privileged guests the earl had invited into his home. The kind of people who thrived on gossip and scandal. The kind of gossip that would ring a death knell to his career, as well as Lizzie’s hopes.

      ‘Listen,’ she said. ‘I don’t care what you say about me. About my part in...in enticing you away from the party and...and all that.’

      He lowered his head to look at her.

      She lifted her chin and met his eyes squarely, for the very first time.

      ‘Naturally you are very angry with me. I’m angry with myself,’ she admitted with a shake of her head. ‘But please, please, don’t let that anger spill over to my friends and drag them into our mess. That is, I know you will have to relate how they found us, but you don’t need to make it sound as though they knew anything about it. Or...or helped me, do you?’

      It hadn’t occurred to him before. But now he saw that to carry out a deception of this magnitude, she would indeed have had to have accomplices.

      ‘Nellie—I mean, the Neapolitan Nightingale did lend me her dress and agree to pretend to be me, to throw others off the scent, but she didn’t know the whole of it. She just thought it was a jest, to see if we could fool people into mistaking us for each other. She thought we were going to stand next to each other at the end of the evening, and take off our masks, and everyone would be astonished. I couldn’t bear it if she got into trouble for a...a prank I played on her as much as anyone else. And I’m afraid that if Papa thinks she was in any way responsible, he will throw her out. Probably do things to destroy her career. And it’s all she has.’

      Now it was his turn to reel. Up till now, he’d thought she was just another spoiled, petulant society miss. Just like the other empty-headed chits his sister claimed as friends. But that impassioned speech proved she was capable of thinking of others.

      It was more than he would have expected of a girl like her. Not that it would do the opera singer any good. Lady Julia’s father wasn’t a fool. He would have seen her aping his daughter’s mannerisms all evening, as well as Julia sashaying around in the opera singer’s revealing gown. It was typical of her sort to act irresponsibly and then be surprised when the underlings they’d dragged into their mess bore the brunt of the repercussions.

      ‘I agree,’ he said curtly. ‘You should take all the blame.’

      She made a little moue of protest. But then, instead of launching into yet another barrage of protests, she lifted her chin.

      ‘Thank you,’ she said, stunning him. ‘And...and as for Marianne...’ Her whole face creased in concern. ‘She didn’t want any part of it. She told me it was wrong, but I...I took no notice.’

      ‘Your father won’t hold that against her,’ he grunted. ‘I only met any of you two days ago, but it’s clear even to me that she has no influence over you whatsoever. You do as you please and expect her to trot along at your heels like a spaniel.’

      ‘I do no such thing! Marianne is my friend!’

      ‘Oh? I thought she was some sort of poor relation.’

      ‘She—well, yes, she did come to live with us when her parents died. Because she had nowhere else to go, but I absolutely do not treat her like a spaniel. And she doesn’t behave like one, either.’

      He shrugged. ‘It’s of no concern to me. You want to shield both her and the opera singer from blame. That’s commendable, I suppose, if a touch impractical.’

      ‘Impractical? How?’

      ‘Never mind how,’ he said, irritated that somehow she’d made him share even a tithe of his thoughts. A good officer never let his subordinates into the workings of his mind. It could lead them to believe he wasn’t totally infallible. ‘Let us just leave it at the point where I agree to leave all the others out of it. Except for the part where they found us in flagrante delicto.’

      She lowered her head for an instant, as though discomfited by his brutal reminder of her spectacular fall from grace.

      ‘Then, what,’ she finally said in a small, almost penitent voice, ‘do you plan to say?’

      ‘You leave that to me,’ he growled. ‘And just remember, your father isn’t going to be the first hurdle we have to leap tonight. We’re going to have to walk back into that house and start searching for him. With everyone staring at us, and wondering what on earth we’re doing together when so far this week we haven’t been able to say two civil words to each other.’

      ‘Oh. Well, I’m sure we can go in a side entrance...’

      ‘If you think we’re going to be able to carry this off with either one of our reputations intact, by skulking about as though we’ve done something to be ashamed of, then you’re even sillier than you look.’

      ‘Oh! What a nasty thing to say.’

      ‘But true.’

      She opened her mouth to argue. Looked as though she’d been struck by the truth of what he’d said. Shut it with a snap.

      ‘Very well,’ she conceded. ‘We’ll walk in together, stroll around until we find my father, and then—’

      ‘And then I will insist on speaking with him in private,’ he broke in, before she could come up with yet another hare-brained scheme.

      She glared at him.

      ‘Fine,’ she snapped, after a brief struggle with herself. ‘Have it your way.’

      ‘Oh, I will,’ he said smoothly, as she laid her arm on his sleeve and squared her shoulders. ‘From now on, you’re going to find that there are some people you cannot twist round your little finger. No matter how you simper, and smile, and cajole.’

      ‘And you will find out,’ she snapped back, as they mounted the steps, ‘that there are some women who would rather die than simper and smile and cajole a man. Particularly not a man like you!’

      ‘Then it appears our married life is going to be a stormy one,’ he replied grimly. ‘We will both be as glad as each other when my business ashore is done, and I can go back to sea.’

      She smiled up at him sweetly. Because they’d reached the terrace, where anyone might see them if they happened to glance out of the windows.

      ‘Oh, I think,’ she said in a caressing tone, ‘that I shall be far more pleased to see the back of you, than you will of me.’

      They strolled across the terrace and in through СКАЧАТЬ