An Improper Lady (The Powder and Patch Collection) Read Online Free

kindly. “Sir Peregrine is right, you know. We may be able to help.”
    She met Perry’s eyes over the blonde head, and he grinned at her apologetically. She gave a tiny shake of her head, wanting to let him know that there would be other opportunities. Her attention was claimed and her arms suddenly full, as Primrose hurled herself into them.
    “No-one can help me!” she sobbed hysterically against Bella’s shoulder. “I must marry a man who sniffs!”
    “ Will any man who sniffs do, or do you, perhaps, have someone specific in mind?” Sir Peregrine asked, resting his hip against the table and regarding her with an interested air. Bella threw him a look of amused reproach, but Primrose appeared not to have noticed his sarcasm.
    “ It is Sir Edmund Tunstall,” she said, recovering slightly. She was one of those fortunate women, Bella noticed with a pang of envy, who looked not one ha’peth the worse for her tears. Instead, as she turned to look at Sir Peregrine, her face was slightly woebegone but still quite devastatingly pretty.
    “ Oh, I wouldn’t do that,” he advised her kindly. “Fellow chews tobacco and,” he shuddered fastidiously, “spits the remains out in public!”
    This pronouncement had the effect making Primrose’s lower lip tremble pathetically, and Bella said, “I think what Miss Chorley is trying to say is that she has no choice in the matter, Sir Peregrine.” She offered her handkerchief to Primrose, who accepted it gratefully. “Is that correct child? Are you being coerced into marriage with Sir Edmund?” Primrose nodded and dabbed at her eyes with the dainty square of lace.
    The whole story tumbled out in fits and starts. Prompted by pertinent questions from Bella - and the occasional frivolous one from Sir Peregrine - Primrose explained the circumstances leading up to this outpouring of emotion. She was eighteen years old, an orphan who lived in the care of her aunt - a lady who, it appeared, harboured large ambitions. Mrs. Grimwald had several daughters of her own, all of them younger than Primrose. Her burning desire was to see each of these damsels creditably wed. She planned to marry her pretty, impoverished niece to the highest bidder – as it was referred to by the vulgar – so that Primrose might subsequently launch her cousins upon the unsuspecting London social scene.
    Mrs. Grimwald’s only requirement when seeking a suitable spouse for Primrose was wealth. Once Sir Edmund Tunstall began to show signs of interest, she had decided he would fit the bill very nicely.
    Tonight, Primrose and her aunt were Sir Edmund’s guests, and that gentleman was showing flattering signs of being on the verge of declaring himself. Mrs. Grimwald, a somewhat lax chaperone when the occasion warranted, allowed him to lead her niece off along one of the quiet walks.
    “ Even though, before we set off this evening, she told me that no lady would ever allow herself to be alone with a gentleman in one of the dark paths!” she sniffed resentfully.
    Sir Peregrine regarded Bella steadily over Primrose’s golden head, one brow raised meaningfully. With a slight tremor in her voice as she bit back the laughter which threatened to bubble, she said soothingly, “’Tis perfectly true child. No lady would do so! But do, pray, continue.”
    Sir Edmund had squeezed Primrose’s waist and tried to kiss her. She, foreseeing a future in which she must submit to such activity on a daily basis, promptly ran away from him.
    “And now,” she sighed dolefully, “I must go back, because Aunt Lucretia will be looking for me and,” her emotions threatened briefly to overcome her again, “she will be so very angry!”
    Bella paused to consider the matter. While she sympathised with the girl, Primrose’s plight was not an uncommon one. She knew nothing to the detriment of Sir Edmund, except, of course, that unpleasant tobacco chewing habit Sir Peregrine had referred to. There was no reason to suspect he would