A Question for Harry Read Online Free Page A

– even if he is an earl – cannot be expected to properly launch a debutante properly into Society, I might have liked to have had someone more … well, young and energetic to sponsor me.
    Still, beggars cannot be choosers.
    I’ve never understood why that is .
     
    The home of Lord and Lady Onslow
    Mayfair, London, England
    Early May 1895
     
    The London Season was everything Fiona had always imagined it might be, and so much less.
    “Fiona, please do not slouch!” Lady Hyde, her maternal grandmother, poked Fiona in the back with the end of her fan, the sharp blow mercifully dulled by the stiff steel of her corset.
    Aye, this was exactly how she imagined it. It was like being seventeen all over again when she had dreamed of a Season.
    Vin had been right . There had been a time when she wanted nothing more than to have a London Season. To attend balls, garden parties and the theater. To dance and flirt and find the man of her dreams.
    She had managed that without a Season at all.
    Since then, i t was the potential to see him , meet him again that had kept her from pressing for a true London Season these past two years.
    And here she was anyway.
    “Yes, Granny,” she sighed and dutifully straightened her shoulders, knowing that any other response would only make things worse.
    But even the worst of her imaginings hadn’t included being prodded with the business end of a surprisingly sharp fan , and Fiona was in possession of a luridly vivid imagination. Vivid enough to cast ghostly sightings of a certain gentleman in every crowd. To hear haunting echoes of a deep, rich voice and warm laughter.
    To conjure enough dreadful anticipation to catch at the very fibers of her nerves until they were frayed to the last thread.
    Only the dogged unwillingness to back down from a challenge kept her nerves intact . Of course it was the same cursed stubbornness that had landed her in London to begin with. She was her own worst enemy in so many ways.
    She had been on pins and needles all week . Waiting. Dreading.
    Thankfully, the very worst of what she expected from the Season hadn’t yet come to be . They’d been in town a week already without the reason for her reticence making an unwelcome appearance as yet and Fiona was beginning to feel the first stirrings of optimism that she might not face that awkward encounter at all.
    It was optimism enough now, half way through her first ball, for Fiona’s natural good humor to begin reasserting itself.
    Another jab . “Posture!”
    It was a good thing , too. Two nights past the tension of waiting for a glimpse of him would have had Fiona snatching that fan from her grandmother’s hand and snapping the delicate mother-of-pearl blades in half. Thankfully, tonight she was able to comply, if not cheerfully, at least without a sharp retort.
    Unfortunately, t hrowing back her shoulders also caused a forward thrust of her breasts. They swelled against the low neckline of her ball gown, prompting another frown to crease the older woman’s brow.
    “Demure, Fiona,” her grandmother dictated, lifting her head and shoulders gracefully by example . “You must be more reserved if you want any potential suitors to approach.”
    “I am finding that being surrounded by nine overly protective brothers seems to frighten off any potential suitors far more efficiently than my demeanor,” Fiona responded pertly. Sadly, the only reward for her rediscovered sense of humor was yet another arrogantly raised brow, but it wasn’t enough to deter Fiona’s tongue. “’Twould be like passing beneath the stare of the Sphinx to approach.”
    “ They do serve to filter out the rabble, however,” Lady Hyde countered as she fanned herself haughtily. “We cannot simply have you thrown to the wolves like a robber baron’s only daughter. No offense intended, of course, Evelyn,” she added to Glenrothes’ wife, who stood at her other side.
    “None taken, my lady .”
    Fiona shared a grin with her