Larcenous Lady Read Online Free

o’clock.”
    The walls of the Silver Lion were thick. No more than a murmur penetrated to Deirdre’s room as the gentlemen passed, laughing and talking. Something in the tone of the voices, also the firm tread of one, the shuffling gait of the other, reminded her of Dick and Pronto. But then everything reminded her of Dick. He’d never put up at a wretched old place like this. How different this trip would be had she come with him on their honeymoon. She wouldn’t be in bed at ten o’clock, listening to her aunt snoring. They’d be out, seeing the city. And afterward, they’d come home together. She wouldn’t be lying all alone, with a hot tear trickling down her cheek.
    The duchess had left word to be awakened at eight. At eight-thirty she was in the dining room, spooning a very inferior and overpriced gruel into her mouth and discussing how they were to proceed on their journey. “The public diligence is the cheap—quickest way to continue,” she outlined. “Only a hundred and eighty-three miles. The guide book says it makes the trip to Paris in fifty-four hours. The time will fly by with so much to see.”
    “There will be twenty or thirty other people in the coach, and half of them will be French,” Deirdre pointed out. Foreigners, she knew, were anathema to her aunt.
    “An excellent opportunity for you to practice the language. That’s why I brought you along.”
    “A post chaise would only cost two and a half guineas,” Deirdre mentioned hopefully.
    “Aye, but you have to pay extra to have the heavy luggage sent by stagecoach.”
    Deirdre knew a stone was easy squeezing compared to her aunt’s purse. The duchess was reputed to be worth a large fortune, but her joy in life was to hold on to it, not squander it on mere necessities. Her bonnet was older than the century, and the sable-lined pelisse could give the bonnet a decade.
    Deirdre glanced at the tattered copy of the Liste Générale des Pastes de France and smiled. “Oh, look, Auntie. The public diligence leaves at six in the morning. We’ll have to spend another day here—and the rates so high,” she added slyly.
    The duchess grabbed the book from her hands and examined it with her falcon’s gaze. “Nuisance! Why did the clerk not tell us? They’re all in it together, fleecing travelers. There’s nothing else for it. We must find some English ladies to share a chaise with. Those Suttons we met at dinner last night—they spoke of hiring a post chaise, did they not?”
    “Yes,” Deirdre said reluctantly. She rather wanted some privacy in which to nurture her wounded heart. On the other hand, company might be the very thing to help her. The older daughter had seemed friendly. The younger though—Lucy—she had been less forthcoming.
    When the Sutton party entered the dining room a little later, the duchess lifted her arm and beckoned them to her table. “So comforting to see an English face,” she said, beaming. “Pray join us for breakfast, ladies.”
    “How soon do you plan to proceed to Paris?” the duchess asked Mrs. Sutton, as soon as they had settled in.
    “This very day. An English gentleman we met here last night is arranging a post chaise for us this morning.”
    “I hope he has more luck than we.” The duchess sighed forlornly. “I sent a messenger over to the hiring stable, and there wasn’t a thing to be had. It looks as though my niece and I must loiter here till something turns up.”
    She shot a sharp glance at Mrs. Sutton as she composed this piece of fiction. She read the considering expression in her companion’s eye—the careful weighing up of pros and cons. Commoners were aware of the distinction inherent in noble friends. On the other hand, the carriage would be crowded for a longish trip.
    Without a second thought, the duchess consigned her own and Mrs. Sutton’s servants to following them in the diligence. “Our last hope of getting out of this wretched place today is joining someone who has had the