Miss Armistead Makes Her Choice Read Online Free Page A

be the fault of his lordship’s feeble hearing. From what Elizabeth could determine Lord Eggleston was on the windy side of forty and had no business inducing a young woman such as Miss Delacourt to dance in the first place. The fact that Lady Eggleston was, indeed, doomed never again to sit on a daintily constructed chair merely added fuel to the fire.
    Elizabeth, who watched the proceedings unfold, found Lord Eggleston’s behavior in the wake of his outrage far inferior to Miss Delacourt’s as he had stalked off to leave her quite alone on the dance floor. This had caused such confusion amongst the other dancers in the set that they were soon seen to mill about in so disordered a fashion that those watching from the perimeters of the room began to point whilst chortling into their respective handkerchiefs. It was with a great deal of composure, chin held high, that Miss Delacourt had walked away in the opposite direction of her feckless dancingpartner.
    She had been met by a tiny woman with red hair upon which perched a turban whose arrangement was endangered by her ferociously raised eyebrows. It was only then that Miss Delacourt had bowed her head. Elizabeth doubted any but herself, who was free to gape to her heart’s content, had seen how the young lady dashed away her tears, so deftly was it done.
    Elizabeth’s own eyes filled as she reflected on what she had witnessed. Not for the first time that night, she thanked her lucky stars that she was safely betrothed to Duncan Cruikshank, a man who cared for her as much as she cared for him. She need never again be concerned for her future as was Miss Delacourt and, perhaps more so, the red-haired woman at her side.
    Elizabeth continued to observe as the woman marched out of the room into the colonnaded gallery alongside it, Miss Delacourt following behind, her head once again held high. With a sigh, Elizabeth began to emerge from her hiding place until she noticed that Miss Delacourt and her red-haired doyenne were headed in her direction. It would be some time before they reached the end of the gallery and returned to the dance floor to obtain the exit from the room, but Elizabeth knew that if she stirred an inch, she should be caught out. How much more appealing it seemed to regard the two women from her current position in hopes of overhearing as much of their conversation as possible.
    She had not long to wait.
    “What you could have been thinking, I cannot imagine!” the tiny woman demanded.
    “It hardly matters now what I was thinking,” Miss Delacourt observed. “I am to be vilified regardless of the truth.”
    “It would not be so,” the older woman said as she stopped to catch her breath just the other side of Elizabeth’s palm, “if you hadn’t the distinction of being known to say exactly what you please. I can see that it has put you quite beyond the pale.”
    “Grandaunt Regina, you cannot believe that the purely innocent, though, admittedly unfortunate, remarks I made at Lady Jersey’s rout are still being bandied about. That was three weeksago.”
    “They are and they will until you make a respectable marriage or quit London society altogether, one or the other. For now, I think that is precisely the solution.”
    “Which is the solution?” Miss Delacourt asked with an arch look. “Or is it both? Though I fail to see how it matters as I have no say, one way or the other.”
    “That is quite enough,” the woman huffed as she turned to resume her journey to the exit. Miss Delacourt once again bowed her head but not before Elizabeth heard the young lady mutter something nonsensical having to do with the superior company of roses over the
ton
.
    Once they had marched out of earshot, Elizabeth drew a deep breath and emerged from behind the palm tree. The dancing had re-commenced and the high society lords and ladies chatted amongst themselves as if nothing had occurred. She was relieved to see that the brouhaha had blown over and, as a final