Venetia (Regency Romances) by Georgette Heyer

Author:Georgette Heyer [Heyer, Georgette]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2011-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Venetia awoke on the following morning conscious of a feeling of oppression which was not lightened by the discovery, presently, that her sole companion at the breakfast-table was Mrs Scorrier, Charlotte being still in bed, and Aubrey having told Ribble to bring him some coffee and bread-and-butter to the library. Mrs Scorrier greeted her with determined affability, but roused in her a surge of unaccustomed wrath by inviting her to say whether she liked cream in her coffee. For a moment she could not trust herself to answer, but she managed to overcome what she told herself was disproportionate fury, and replied that Mrs Scorrier must not trouble to wait on her. Mrs Scorrier, momentarily quelled by the sudden fire in those usually smiling eyes, did not persist, but embarked on an effusive panegyric which embraced the bed she had slept in, the view from her window, and the absence of all street noises. Venetia responded civilly enough, but when Mrs Scorrier expressed astonishment that she should permit Aubrey to eat his breakfast when and where it pleased him, the tone in which she replied: ‘Indeed, ma’am?’ was discouraging in the extreme.

‘Perhaps I am old-fashioned,’ said Mrs Scorrier, ‘but I believe in strict punctuality. However, I can well understand that you must have found the poor boy a difficult charge. When Sir Conway comes home, no doubt he will know how to manage him.’

That made Venetia laugh. ‘My dear Mrs Scorrier, you speak as if Aubrey were a child! He will soon be seventeen, and since he has managed himself for years it would be quite useless to interfere with him now. To do Conway justice, he wouldn’t attempt to.’

‘As to that, Miss Lanyon, I shall venture to say that I should be greatly astonished if Sir Conway permitted Aubrey to order meals to be sent to him on trays without so much as a by your leave, now that Undershaw has a mistress, for it is not at all the thing. You will forgive my plain speaking, I am sure!’

‘Certainly I will, ma’am, for it enables me to do a little plain speaking myself!’ promptly replied Venetia. ‘Pray abandon any notion you may have of trying to reform Aubrey, for neither you nor your daughter has the smallest right to meddle in his affairs! They are his own concern, and, to some extent, mine.’

‘Indeed! I seem to have been strangely misinformed, then, since I believed him to be Sir Conway’s ward!’

‘No, you have not been misinformed, but Conway would be the first to tell you to leave Aubrey to me. It is only right that I should warn you, ma’am, that while Conway deeply pities Aubrey for his physical disability he stands in absurd awe of his mental superiority. Furthermore, although he has many faults, he is not only excessively good-natured, but has a sort of chivalry besides, which would make it impossible for him to be anything but indulgent – perhaps foolishly! – were Aubrey ten times as

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