Page 53 of Love and the Shameless Lady

Thank heavens Gloriana hadn’t come to dine. Evidently, she’d stayed at the Dower House out of pique. Which was fine, as the situation was none of her business and would remain that way. Daisy had begged Melinda to tell no one that she’d written those novels. She hoped Melinda could keep a secret, then reminded herself that it might not be a secret for much longer. If any of the guests had already learned it from another source . . .

Ah, a topic of conversation! “Tell me, who have you invited to your house party?”

Miles’s mouth twitched. Melinda groaned.

Julian chuckled. “That bad, is it?”

“I’m afraid so,” Melinda said. “The guest of honor is the Earl of Hythwick.”

“Good Lord.” Julian turned to Daisy. “He is a pompous fool, so puffed up in his own esteem that one is tempted to prick him with a pin and see if he deflates.”

Melinda nodded her agreement. “I don’t understand how Gloriana can bear the thought of marrying him. He boasts constantly of his estates, his horses, his prowess on the hunting field . . .”

“She’s engaged to him?” Daisy asked. No wonder, then, at her reaction to the arrival of her notorious cousin.

“Not yet. He has conceived a violent passion for her but balks at the prospect of a close connection with the Warrens. Gloriana wants to prove to him that we are a truly noble family.”

“Completely reformed, our escutcheon wiped clean of every last blot.” Miles cast his eyes heavenward.

“I couldn’t have come at a worse moment,” Daisy said. “Julian, I believe we must leave.”

“No, you shan’t,” Melinda said.

“But—”

“On the contrary, it’s the ideal moment for your arrival,” Miles said. “I don’t want the connection any more than he does, but I don’t have a valid reason to object. If your presence deters him, I shall rejoice.”

“But if Gloriana loves him—”

“She loves his title and his stuffy respectability,” Miles said.

“She wants to wash the dust of the Warrens from her feet and become a member of a family of which she can truly be proud,” Melinda said.

Julian’s jaw dropped. “She told you that?”

“Those were her very words,” Melinda said. “She really is the outside of enough. Fortunately, I don’t offend easily, but I was obliged to put a severe rein on my temper.”

“Until you recounted it to me.” Miles grinned.

“I love our family, blotted escutcheon and all,” Daisy said, “but if that’s what she wants, I’d really rather not get in her way.” She glanced at Julian, not sure why. She shouldn’t need his approval. Or opinion. And in any event, Miles and Melinda would do as they pleased. So . . . what did she want from him?

“Was Gloriana always like this?” Julian asked, trying to decide what was best for Daisy at this juncture, regardless of the opinions of Lord Garrison, his sister, and his wife.

Sadness crossed Daisy’s already anxious face. “Not as a child. She was my dearest friend, and such fun.”

“Our mother was overly concerned with status and precedence,” Miles said. “She taught Gloriana to set her sights high.”

“That’s true. In our games she always married a duke,” Daisy said. “She hated it when Miles and Colin told horrid stories about our ancestor, the murderer, not because it frightened her, but because it was never proven and therefore, by her estimation, untrue. She insisted that he was too noble to be guilty.”

“Why should it matter?” Julian asked. “Every noble family has a villain or two.”

“Especially in Tudor times,” Melinda said. “With all the plotting and beheading going on, how could it be avoided?”

“Does your family have a villain?” Daisy asked Julian.

“We’re mostly gentry, not nobility, so villainy is not required,” Julian said. “Instead, we suffer under the burden of too much propriety.”

Daisy huffed.