Read His Lordship's Chaperone for Free Online Page B

Did he eat?
Would she see him before they departed for the evening? Catherine was looking
very forward to their next meeting. He could not possibly be as she remembered
him … as handsome as she remembered.
    No, impossible.
    Not long after finishing her meal, she began her
toilette.
    Other than changing her dress, Catherine did
nothing to alter her appearance. She inspected herself in the pier glass. She
wore her blue, high-collared dress. The dress the Duchess thought modest was in
fact Catherine’s finest. She coiled her hair into the same tight bun she always
wore atop her head and slid her spectacles in place. She was ready.
    “Honoria, I will not allow the opportunity of the
Marquess of Haverton to slip by.” Lady Darlington glared with determination at
her daughter’s reflection in the dressing glass. “I want you to throw yourself
straight into his arms!”
    “But Mama, I do not think I could do as you ask.”
    “Fustian! You are the loveliest young lady London
has to offer. I would not be shocked if you were the Incomparable of the Season.”
    Honoria turned from the glass and pulled out of her
mother’s tight grasp. “But I only want to marry for love, Mama.”
    “Hush! Ridiculous notion. You will do as you’re
told,” Lady Darlington ordered. “Now remember, if he reaches for you, you will
go straight into his arms.”
    Honoria shook her head and remained mute.
    “If he kisses you, you will act as if you have
soared to the heights of heaven.” Lady Darlington stretched her hand out and
upward, illustrating the lengths she wanted her daughter to ascend.
    Honoria sniveled.
    “And if he wishes to do anything more,” Lady Darlington
paused, deciding against an explanation of exactly what the more would entail,
“you will willingly allow him that liberty too.”
    Honoria’s banked tears flowed. Where was the girl’s
backbone? No doubt her weakness came from her father. Lady Darlington fingered
a ringlet of her daughter’s hair, setting it back in place.
    “Yes, you will, my dear girl. You shall do as
you’re told and your mama will see that everything works out as planned. We
shall wait until Haverton grows tired of the crowd. He can only tolerate the
flock of women for so long before he requires solitude to recuperate. That is
when we shall make our move.”
    “Must we, Mama?” Honoria whimpered. “I do not know
if I can go through with it.”
    “You will. You most certainly will.” Lady
Darlington could envision the Marquess moving away from the ladies to find
momentary companionship with his gentleman friends, Lord Fitzgerald and Sir
Giles Winthrop.
    It wouldn’t be long after that, she thought. He’d
most likely dance two sets and remove himself for a quarter of an hour or so.
It was a pattern, she noted, that he repeated. And because of that predictable
behavior, Lady Darlington would snare her lovely Honoria the most eligible
bachelor in England.
    Dressed in her blue gown, Catherine waited in the
drawing room of Moreland Manor at two minutes before eight. She adjusted her
spectacles and ran her hand over her head, finding not one hair had strayed
from her tight bun. She was not about to be tardy for her first outing with the
Marquess.
    After five minutes had passed, an immaculately
dressed Lord Haverton, sporting a black jacket over a pair of white satin knee
breeches and a snowy white cravat, stepped into the room. “Come, Mrs. Hayes, it
is time to be on our way,” he announced without preamble.
    “Miss Hayward, your lordship.” Catherine was nearly
past the point of correcting him. Not that it mattered, but for one reason or
another he simply could not remember her name.
    “Yes, of course it is.” Absorbed in the task of
pulling on his gloves, Lord Haverton never looked up.
    How could Catherine have ever thought he had any
interest in her? Goodness, he could not even remember her name.
    The butler opened the front door and Catherine
pulled her wrap about her while the Marquess