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sufficient to make even the redoubtable
Miss Tamerlane lope off to parts unknown.
    So instead of dismissing his cousin—who was
making only a cursory effort to hide several wide yawns—he launched
into a detailed description of her duties as concerned his
sister.
    As these duties seemed all directed toward
the same end. Tansy cut in rudely, “I believe you have made
yourself abundantly clear and can say no more without repeating
yourself. I am correct, I believe, in surmising from your words,
dressed up in fine linen as they are, that you merely mean I am to
keep Lady Emily on a stout and short leash while giving her the
impression she has been given her own head. I am to be an ape
leader without, thank goodness, having to teach sums,
globe-reading, water color sketching, or fine needlepoint. I
daresay it sounds no easy task you have set me, but it is head and
shoulders better than slaving over Squire Lindley’s brats.” She
rose as if to quit the room but hesitated as Avanoll spoke
again.
    “You are correct as far as it goes, cousin,
but there is more to it than that. Emily must be chaperoned at all
times, and that means you must be fitted out with, er,” his eyes
flitted unflatteringly over her present attire, “what I mean to say
is that you will need a complete new wardrobe.” As Tansy started to
protest he cut into her objections with a stern voice. “Be
sensible, Miss Tamerlane. As our cousin it is only right we assist
you if the cost of the thing is what has put you on your high
ropes. Besides, to be frank, if that gown is any indication of your
wardrobe—any argument you make to appear in Society in more of the
same would be ludicrous.”
    Two high spots of color appeared on his
cousin’s cheeks, but she swallowed hard and bowed to the
intelligence of his reasoning. Indeed, what she stood up in was
more than representative of her wardrobe, it was the best thing in
it. Her firm (some would say stubborn) chin came up and she asked
if she could now retire. Any minute her stomach would set up a loud
grumble and destroy her last shreds of dignity.
    “I will detain you no longer than necessary,
but there are one or two more items—”
    “Yes, yes, I know. Your sister is a very open
and confiding person.” She held out her right hand and ticked off
the items on her long, slim fingers as her cousin mentally added
fine bone structure to the plus side of his list on the girl—a side
heavily outweighed by the minus column. “One: your grandmother, the
dowager Duchess. An intelligent old lady from what I could glean,
who washed her hands of Lady Emily’s come-out after their first
foray to Bond Street. Two, and here I am not as clear: your aunt,
the woman responsible for your sister’s dislike of her wardrobe,
and whose laxity, laziness, or gullibility is no more a deterrent
to Emily’s high flights than a parlor table. Now may I please be
excused, your grace?”
    “If you would cease to interrupt me every
time I open my mouth, we could bring this interview to an end in
short order. I too have had a trying day,” his grace pointed out
uncharitably. “My grandmother, who as you say is a highly
intelligent and rather sly old girl, resides for the moment in
town, but has decided to return to Yorkshire by the end of the
week. If you guard your manners and refrain from stable slang and
boxing cant, we should scrape by with her with no problem. It is
Aunt Lucinda, who I am forced to keep here for lack of any relative
to ship her off to—none of my kin being so desperate for a live-in
companion or so out of my favor as to have dear Lucinda foisted off
on them—who presents the most delicate problem. She will be quite
hipped to find herself replaced, you see.”
    Tansy cocked one well-defined brow. “A real
clunker?”
    The Duke allowed a small smile. “Widow of my
cousin, Jerome Benedict. Old Jerry turned up his toes some six
months ago, about a week after losing his last groat at the gaming
tables. It seemed