Perfecting Fiona Read Online Free Page A

eyes, but both sisters had their heads bent over their plates and did not see it.

2

    Woman, though so kind she seems, will take
your heart and tantalize it,
Were it made of Portland stone, she’d manage
to McAdamize it
.
James Planche
    It became clear after only a few weeks of her stay that Fiona Macleod was going to save the Tribble sisters a certain amount of money. The dancing master, the water-colourist, and the Italian tutor were soon cancelled. Fiona did not need any of them.
    She danced like an angel, painted highly competent water-colours, and spoke Italian fluently. She had perfect manners and a graceful bearing. Apart from the fact that she was very quiet and shy and withdrawn, there seemed to be no fault in the girl.
    Both Effy and Amy decided Mr and Mrs Burgess were hard and unnatural people. Still, despite the fact that Fiona was an heiress, they did expect some difficulty in finding her a husband.
They
found her charming and attractive, but
they
were not men. Men, said Effy, were incalculable creatures, given to falling passionately in love with bold misses with pushing ways.
    Yet they held back from starting instruction in the important arts of flirting and conversation. Both decided that Fiona was much in need of a period of kindness and rest.
    Neither would admit to the other that they found living with Fiona a bit of a strain. She was so very quiet, so very good. Amy felt clumsy and gauche and loud. Effy, who often enjoyed comparing her own delicate appearance favourably with that of her mannish sister, now felt every bit as large and loud and clumsy as Amy.
    Had their charge proved as difficult as they had expected, then they would have kept her at home with her schooling and not presented her anywhere until the beginning of the Season. But, although neither would admit it, both longed to be shot of the waif.
    And so when an invitation to a ball at the Duke and Duchess of Penshire’s Town house arrived, they decided to accept. Amy thought guiltily about the ducal son, Lord Peter, and then came to the rapid conclusion that he was no threat. How could such a well-known rake and heartbreaker ever even look at such a one as Fiona.
    Effy, too, was anxious to go. Life had become strangely flat and dull now that the spectre of financial ruin had retreated. They were comfortable, and nothing threatened them.
    Perhaps it might have added spice to the sisters’ life to know that someone was plotting their downfall at that very moment and spent a great deal of time watching the comings and goings at the house in Holles Street.
    The villain was Mr Desmond Callaghan. He was an Exquisite, a Pink of the
ton
, a fribble, who had assiduously cultivated the sisters’ aunt, Mrs Cutworth, to such good effect that the aunt had died leaving the sisters not one penny, but everything to Mr Callaghan. The sisters, because of this disappointment, had ‘gone into business’ as chaperones. The wealth they had gained through their first job had prompted the furious Mr Callaghan to believe that the sisters had inveigled all their aunt’s money and jewels out of her before her death. In short, they had tricked him, and must be punished. For he, who had expected to gain riches, after many weary hours and days of dancing attendance on the old frump, had found her bequest contained nothing but debts, which the sale of her house only just covered.
    He had recently learned of their role as chaperones extraordinary and was now watching and waiting like a cat at a mouse hole for a chance to harm them in some way. He did not for a minute believe they had achieved their new and comfortable style of living through work alone.
    He was one of those doubtful young men who managed to get invitations to some of the best houses, but the Duke and Duchess of Penshire were too high up and too rigid to issue an invitation to their ball to such as himself.
    The Tribbles’ second footman, Frank, was a callow young man with a taste for low taverns