Deirdre and Desire Read Online Free Page A

no,’ said the vicar. ‘Very womanly. Pretty little thing. Domesticated. Been well-trained. See here,’ he went on, improvizing rapidly, ‘she will be staying with
Lady Godolphin next Monday and we shall be having a little musicale. Perhaps you would like to attend?’
    There was a long silence. A bluebottle, brave survivor of summer, buzzed against the glass. A log shifted on the fire and several clocks began to chime the half hour.
    ‘Yes,’ said Lord Harry at last. ‘I will be there.’
    ‘Good, good, send you a card,’ gabbled the vicar, now desperate to escape.
    Lord Harry raised one long, slim, white hand as the vicar rose to his feet.
    ‘You are sure your daughter’s affections are not otherwise engaged?’
    ‘No,’ said the vicar, glad to be able to tell the truth at last. ‘Deirdre’s never even looked at a man, if you know what I mean.’
    ‘No, I don’t,’ said Lord Harry pleasantly.
    ‘Well, don’t trouble your brain with it,’ said the vicar, patting him on the shoulder. ‘We look forward to the pleasure of your company on Monday.’
    ‘What an idiot!’ muttered the vicar to himself as he left the club. ‘Never mind. He’s a manageable idiot and Deirdre will be quite happy with a complacent
husband.’
    He set off at a brisk pace in the direction of Lady Godolphin’s house.
    He needed all the help he could get!

TWO

    Deirdre Armitage sat reading a novel she did not like to Lady Wentwater whom she did not like either.
    The drawing room was dark and musty. Lady Wentwater was white and doughy and musty. As she read, Deirdre wondered about Lady Wentwater’s nephew, Guy. No one had seen him in the county
since the time it had seemed he was enamoured of Annabelle.
    Rumour had it that the vicar had frightened him away. Guy Wentwater had said he was a slave trader, and although he had long quit that ghastly means of earning money, the Armitage family were
happy that he chose to stay away.
    Then Deirdre’s thoughts turned to the story she was reading. It was called Ludovic’s Revenge by A Lady of Quality and Deirdre judged it quite the silliest tale she had ever
read. Everyone seemed either to turn scarlet or go ‘ashen pale’. Men and women fainted with amazing regularity and there wasn’t even a decent ghost.
    Deirdre took a quick glance at the clock. Then she closed the book firmly.
    ‘It is late, Lady Wentwater,’ she said. ‘I must return home.’
    ‘Then come tomorrow.’
    ‘Daphne will come tomorrow,’ said Deirdre, privately vowing to give her sister’s hair a good yank if she did not.
    ‘Oh, Daphne. I will need to shroud every looking glass in the house or I won’t hear a word out of her,’ snorted Lady Wentwater. ‘Too taken up with herself, she
is.’
    ‘She has reason to be,’ said Deirdre, who, though she privately agreed with Lady Wentwater, did not like criticism of any of her sisters. ‘She has become even more beautiful
than Minerva or Annabelle.’
    ‘Aye, and she knows it. Why, Guy! When did you arrive?’
    Deirdre gave a little gasp and leapt to her feet, turning to face the monster slave trader.
    Guy Wentworth stood smiling at her, looking so handsome, so normal, and so, yes, ordinary that Deirdre lost her fears and was able to drop him a curtsy with an air of composure.
    ‘Permit me to escort you home, Miss . . . Deirdre. It is Miss Deirdre, is it not?’ smiled Guy.
    Deirdre nodded, but added that she was perfectly capable of seeing herself home.
    To her annoyance, he walked with her to the door.
    ‘We have not seen you in some time, Mr Wentwater,’ said Deirdre, praying that he would leave her at the main door.
    ‘No, I have just returned from Paris. I finally sold out.’
    ‘Sold out? Then you were in the military, sir?’
    ‘Yes,’ he sighed, looking grave. ‘I know what you and your family think of me, Miss Deirdre. Have you ever considered the disgust I feel for myself? The barbarous trade I
briefly engaged in was the senseless