Read Behind the Mask (House of Lords) for Free Online Page B

enjoyed their second Season, prompting their mother to launch into an elaborate retelling of every ball and gown and dance partner. Even Maris, who loved the glittering whirl of the Season above anything else, seemed rather exasperated by the time the men finally joined them. Then Cynthia excused herself saying, “I tire so easily these days!”
    Charles, Georgina, Maris and Lady Sidney sat down to play cards, leaving Eleanor and Lord Pierce sitting on the sofa. For a while they sat in companionable silence. Eleanor had a book on her lap though she was not really reading it. It was Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet , which she had read last year just after its publication. She had enjoyed it immensely then, even though she found the ending rather unsatisfying, but tonight the French words seemed to run together on the page.
    Lord Pierce seemed to have noticed her occupation, for he said, “You read French?”
    She nodded. “And Russian and German, though neither of those are my strong suit.”
    He seemed impressed. “You must have had a singular governess.”
    “She was a formidable woman. I don’t know where mother found her. She was a Russian immigrant, the daughter of a princess. She spoke Russian to us in our childhood, but when our father commanded her to stop she switched to teaching us to read it instead. She had a rebellious soul, I think, which might have had something to do with why she left Russia in the first place. French and German I learned at the Moreton School.”
    “I see,” he said. “And your sisters—do they read French and German as well?”
    Eleanor was sure she blushed. “I was a good student, My Lord, and a quick learner. I found the study of languages and history far more intriguing than the harp or embroidery. It is not difficult to learn something when one is given time to apply oneself wholeheartedly.”
    “You strike me as the sort of woman who never does anything less than wholeheartedly.”
    She laughed. “Then you have never seen me play the piano! I am dearly fond of music, but I am afraid I have no talent for instruments.”
    Lady Sidney had risen to survey the desserts, and now she said, “Oh, you do not do yourself justice, Eleanor! My eldest daughter possesses a fine singing voice, My Lord, for all that she will dissemble and insist it is barely tolerable.”
    “Yes, Eleanor,” Maris cried. “We must get Georgina to play so that you may sing. You will, won’t you, Georgie?”
    Her twin nodded and said quietly, “But only if Eleanor really wishes to sing.”
    “Of course she does!” Eleanor’s mother said confidently. “Do you have an instrument, your grace?”
    The duke said, “Of course,” and rose from the table to lead them through to a lovely music room, the centerpiece of which was a beautiful piano, an Erard if she was not mistaken. Georgina slowed to walk beside her.
    “Are you sure you wish to sing?”
    “I can hardly refuse now. I think I will sing ‘Adelaide’, if that’s all right with you.”
    Georgina shrugged. They both knew she was accomplished enough at the piano that it hardly mattered which song Eleanor chose. She would accompany her to perfection. That was not what worried her.
    She liked Lord Pierce. Oh, she found him attractive as well, but she also liked him. If she had been a man the two of them might have been friends. But she found him intriguing and personable, and she did not want him to think she was throwing herself at him. Her mother knew that she would choose to sing something romantic like Beethoven’s ‘Adelaide’ because those were the songs that showcased her voice best, and Eleanor only hoped that he did not interpret it as a guileless effort to attract him. He was not here to court her, after all.
    Georgina made herself comfortable on the bench and then looked expectantly up at her. Eleanor took a few deep breaths as her sister began to play.
     
    When Colin first arrived in Vienna he knew no one except the foreign