Mad About The Baron (Matchmaking for Wallflowers Book 4) by Bianca Blythe

Author:Bianca Blythe [Blythe, Bianca]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC014000, FIC027070
Published: 2017-04-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Perhaps Lord Worthing suffered from claustrophobia. The man’s ability to retain a pained expression was impressive, given the women’s obvious pleasure in seeing him.

The women’s perfectly curled locks managed to retain their stiff, immaculate shape despite the sway of the carriage.

“And what is your name?” Miss Haskett asked her. “Lord Worthing should have presented you to us.”

Veronique tensed. Admitting that she was an unmarried woman, traveling with a man who was not her relative, seemed all too final. Perhaps the servants at the castle were already gossiping, certainly Lord Braunschweig would discover when she showed up at his doorstep that she’d acted with great unconventionality, but that did not mean she wanted the information to go to a strange woman she’d never met.

Lord Worthing sighed. Perhaps that was why he did not want them to speak together.

“Are names really so important?” he said.

The woman in a stark dark gray dress frowned. “Reputation is a person’s most important thing.”

Lord Worthing’s gaze hardened. “How curious that you do not seem to honor it then.”

The woman’s cheeks pinkened, and she withdrew a book.

And then Veronique gasped.

The others looked at her, but she was only conscious of the book cover.

Her name, her pen name, her nom de plume, was emblazed in long, swirling curves.

“Oh,” she exclaimed. “You’re reading a Loretta Van Lochen book.”

“You read her too?”

Lord Worthing coughed.

Veronique hesitated. “I’ve read some books…”

She was conscious of Lord Worthing’s gaze on her, and she shifted her legs.

“Indeed. Well then. The colonies cannot be so dreadful,” Miss Theodosia Fitzroy said.

Miss Haskett sniffed. “A single solace does not a great nation make.”

Miss Fitzroy leaned toward Veronique. “People say she’s in this region.”

“Oh.” Discomfort tightened Veronique’s stomach.

They couldn’t…know?

Veronique raked her hand through her hair, but halted, deciding that awkward jerky movements would not make her look less guilty. “Why would you think she’s here?”

Lord Worthing had thought the same thing, but being in a carriage filled with people interested in seeing her was not reassuring.

Her voice sounded definitely higher than normal, and her cheeks warmed.

“Oh, there was an article about it in Matchmaking for Wallflowers,” Miss Fitzroy announced.

Veronique blinked.

“Are you unfamiliar with the illustrious pamphlet?” Condescension filled Miss Haskett’s voice.

“Well—” Veronique tried to laugh, even though she felt as if she’d accidentally wandered into a wartime interrogation chamber. “I recently arrived from America…”

“Here’s the article about Loretta Van Lochen.” Miss Fitzroy passed the magazine to Veronique.

Veronique stared at the pages. Women in beautiful clothes, arched to reveal the exact cuts and patterns to interested fabric shoppers and tailors.

She spotted her pen name and read the letter to herself.

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