A Confounding Regency Romance by Kate Archer

Author:Kate Archer [Archer, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Behind the Fan Books
Published: 2024-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Jemima had done a fine job of delaying their departure to the duke’s garden party. She’d thought long and hard about what she could do to communicate her utter disdain for the duke and his idea that her mind was damaged. Being late had been first on the list. Being very late would say that his garden party was only a tiresome duty.

She was determined to arrive very late.

Her father had put up a fuss about it, even calling up the stairs at one moment. Jemima had run from her room wrapped only in her robe and spoke to him from the top of the staircase. She explained that there had been no end of problems with her dress and Aggie was even now sewing a hem that had ripped.

The duke suggested simply choosing another dress, but Jemima had looked at him incredulous and said, “Now?”

She knew full well that her papa would not understand the incredulity of her tone, but he would write it off as a womanly thing he did not comprehend. Jemima had noticed her mother trotting out that sort of gambit. The duchess liked to say things like, “But my darling, I am a woman,” when faced with a thing she did not care to face. She did not provide any further explanation regarding what she meant by it. The duke was always left vaguely uneasy and defeated, though he could not say how or why.

At the news that the dress could not be changed at this late date, the duke had trudged back into the drawing room. He’d not been happy about it, but there was little he could do to hurry a daughter still dressed in a robe who could not change dresses at the last minute on account of being a woman.

Before getting into the carriage, she mentioned to the coachman that she often felt as if he drove too fast and it gave her a headache. Barnes had stared uncomprehendingly, and the groom had snorted. They had both looked to her father for guidance on this new and extraordinary complaint.

The duke had shrugged and muttered, “It’ll be sunrise by the time we finally get there.”

Despite the duke’s mutterings, Barnes did drive slower than would be his habit.

However, even if she could flummox her father and perhaps the coachman too, it was not so easy to fool her mother. After the endless series of delays and now proceeding very slowly through the streets, she’d said, “Jemima?”

Rather than answer the question she knew very well her mother was asking, Jemima said, “Yes, I do feel quite fine going at this pace, my headache will be avoided.”

Though she had delayed and delayed, they did finally arrive at the duke’s house.

It was a grand old place fronted in white stone and she knew from her father that it ran deep. On the next street over there was a servant’s entrance, as the house was set up as an enormous and hollow square with a small park within.

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