Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice Read Online Free

of wonderment and, in spite of his hand at herelbow, she descended as did a hot knife through butter, staring into his eyes all the while.
    “Caught another one in your net, have you, Elizabeth?” Miss Hale twittered. “Still, it shall be of no account now that you are betrothed to your Duncan.”
    Colin felt as if the ground had shifted under his feet. “Betrothed?” he asked of no one in particular, unwilling to believe that he could have been so wrong about these three women. Certainly, he could not be, not so close on the heels of his having been so very wrong about Miss Cecily Ponsonby.
    “Well, yes, Mr. Lloyd-Jones,” Mrs. Armistead said faintly. “We have come for the procurement of bride clothes for Elizabeth, you see. We intend to vastly enjoy society whilst we wait for her intended to join her in a month or so. Once they are married, Miss Hale and I shall return to India.”
    Colin could feel the frown that furrowed his brow as he fell back a step and regarded the women with fresh eyes. The scheming mother now looked to be the frightened traveler she was and Miss Hale less the innocent ingénue, while the beautiful coquette was nothing but a misunderstood maiden. The shock of these revelations was nothing compared to the taste of ashes in his mouth when he realized that the gorgeous Miss Armistead was not in the least obtainable, his patent admiration of her not in the least proper, and that he had made a fool of himself over a woman for the second time in as many weeks.
    With a swift intake of breath that, even in his own ears, sounded suspiciously like a gasp, he turned away from the trio of women he had so willingly assumed to be imbued with every possible unsavory intention and sunk his face into his hand. Not for the first time that night, he was grateful for the pact that he and Tony had made; he needs must never be in the company of any of these women again. The very moment a silent prayer for speedy deliverance was sent aloft, the butler rapped at the door and entered with news that the team and carriage were ready and waiting to convey the ladies to their lodgings.
    Colin pulled the ravaged edges of his pride about himself in order to bid a proper farewell toMrs. Armistead, her daughter and her friend and heaved a huge sigh of relief when the library door had shut behind them. As he stared into the fire, he recalled that Tony had warned him about gazing overlong on the face of one as beautiful as Miss Armistead and knew that his friend had the right of it. He had never felt quite so pulled in before, and never on so short of an acquaintance. His eyes went again to the invitations on the mantle and with a flick of his wrist he dispatched them to the flames. There was nothing, now, that could dissuade him from keeping his distance from Miss Armistead and all of her ilk for the remainder of the season.

Chapter Two
    Miss Elizabeth Armistead did not wish to be observed. As such, she stood behind a potted palm in a dark corner of the Carruth’s ballroom, a circumstance that had little to do with the repeated requests by her aunt to partner a spotty-faced boy. She was persuaded his governess should certainly arrive to carry him home to bed any moment, never mind that he was over six foot tall and, of all things, an earl. No, indeed, her hiding place afforded her the opportunity to glean much from the breathless conversations that sailed past her unawares.
    From these, she discerned that a recent
contretemps
on the dance floor had been occasioned by one Miss Ginerva Delacourt who was rumored to have said something unforgivably shocking. However, no one agreed on the words she spoke. Some said she had called her dancing partner, Lord Eggleston, a simpleton while others insisted that her words, in reference to his lordship’s mother, were “weighs a ton”.
    Under the circumstances, Elizabeth felt it was likely she had merely uttered “Mother Eggleston” and was being unduly censured for what must surely