Damsel in Disguise by Susan Gee Heino

Author:Susan Gee Heino
Language: ron
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

RASTMOOR TRIED TO DROWN IT OUT BY CHEWING loudly, but his sister’s endless prattle was not to be ignored. It was nearly enough to ruin his appetite for the hearty spread Dashford’s fine cook had prepared tonight.

“. . . And if you had been there, I daresay you would have needed to call him out, the way Mr. Brumpton stared at my very best fichu all that night long,” she boasted lightly. “Three times he begged me to dance, after I’d already stood up with him twice!”

“Am I to assume you make it a habit of dancing repeatedly with the same gentleman at any given ball?” Rastmoor asked, sliding his mother a none-too-subtle look of frustration.

“Don’t glare at me,” his mother snipped at him, cutting delicately into her trifle. “It’s not as if I haven’t told her what’s appropriate and what isn’t. Perhaps if you’d joined us in London this season as a responsible brother, your sister might not have attracted so much of the wrong sort of attention.”

“And just what wrong sort of attention has Penelope been attracting, may I ask?”

As if he believed for one moment that Penelope had foolishly let herself fall into impropriety. He knew his sister better than that; she was too smart, too determined for that. The last thing she would allow was her brilliant season to be ruined by some hint of scandal. His mother was clearly trying to heap on guilt for the way he’d managed to avoid their little soirees and, no doubt, the marriage traps. Indeed, he had no delusions about the woman’s ulterior motive for insisting his presence was necessary for Penelope’s social success. She was planning to get both her offspring carted off to the parson this year.

Well, she’d just have to settle for one. Provided, that was, Rastmoor was able to settle this with Fitzgelder, and Penelope could safely go back to Town to finish out her season. Attracting the wrong sort of attention, indeed. No doubt she’d turn up her nose at any inappropriate suitor and settle for nothing less than a duke.

“She’s been positively indiscriminate in her attentions toward admirers,” his mother announced.

“Mamma, honestly!” Penelope said with a dramatic sigh. “I can’t help it if gentlemen find me so irresistible.”

Her mother simply sniffed in response. “Indeed? Well, you at least should not find each and every one of them so very irresistible.”

Rastmoor had made the mistake of stuffing a crust of bread into his mouth. He very nearly choked on it. By God, what had Penelope been up to?

“Well, how am I ever to select one of them for a husband if I can’t so much as carry on a conversation?”

“If only conversation were all you carried on,” their mother muttered under her breath.

At least, it’s what Rastmoor thought she had said. Had she said it? He pinned his gaze on the innocent-looking Penelope. Had she been idiot enough to let some of those knock-minded pups in London lure her into disgrace? The last thing he needed right now was to learn that his sister had not been circumspect in her relationships.

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