Read Online Rejar by Dara Joy - Free Book Online

appease his voracious hunger.
    * * *
    The short, choppy motions of Auntie Whumples’ fan indicated the old woman’s acute displeasure. “Good heavens! Here comes that shallow-pated twit Eleanora Vandershmeer. ‘Tis too late to escape her now—she’s spotted me.”
    Lilac tried not to smile at her aunt’s irritation as a large overbearing woman bore down on them with a dedicated precision. If Auntie hadn’t insisted they attend this boring outing, she wouldn’t have had to put up with Lady Vandershmeer. The two of them could be spending a nice quiet evening at home, where they should be!
    The only bright spot of the evening had been when she had learned that that idiot Creighton was plagued with a bad case of sniffles and would not be in attendance that night. The fop had probably snuffed himself silly! She giggled to herself.
    “Oh, but the woman’s constant tiddle-tattle will drive me mad!” Auntie spoke to Lilac from behind her fan, before pasting on a false smile for the ton’s nosiest woman. Lady Vandershmeer spread gossip as if she had been divinely called to the task.
    “Agatha!” She waved an amaranthus-colored hanky at Auntie Whumples. The cloth had been heavily soaked in jasmine water. Lilac knew Auntie loathed jasmine water.
    “Eleanora.” Auntie gritted her teeth, trying not to breathe too deeply of the cloying scent. “How good to see you again.”
    The two women embraced, kissing the air next to their cheeks. Lady Vandershmeer then turned a discerning eye to Lilac, minutely examining her gown and hairstyle before saying, “And here’s our little Lilac!”
    “Good evening. Lady Vandershmeer.”
    “How lovely you look tonight, my dear. Why, no one would ever suspect you were past twenty now.”
    Lilac sighed at the woman’s snippety implication regarding her unwed state; but Auntie was not inclined to be so passive. “Yes, the Earl of Roxton thought so as well when he complimented her earlier; didn’t he, Lilac? Such a refined gentleman. You do know the Earl, don’t you, Eleanora?” Auntie expertly pinned her adversary to the spot.
    Two blotches of color managed to stain Lady Vandershmeer cheeks even through the five coats of rouge the woman wore. To avoid answering Auntie’s question {and thereby admitting to such a social dysfunction}, Lady Vandershmeer grabbed Auntie Whumples’s forearm, leaning closer to her as if she were her dearest friend. A friend with whom she simply had to share something of momentous import.
    Her irritating voice rose considerably.
    “Have you heard the latest on-dit?” Too eager to spread the gossip, she did not even wait for a response. “There is a prince here from Russia!”
    Lady Whumples did not react in any way to the enticing news, which meant that she hadn’t yet heard the rest of the story. Lady Vandershmeer was in Gossip Heaven. In her glory, she breathlessly babbled on.
    “Agatha, I simply must tell you! From Tattersall’s to Vauxhall—everyone is talking about him! Why, there was even a story about him in the Morning Post the other day. It was implied that a certain Russian prince made a stunning appearance in a drawing room ...”—she savored the denouement—”sans clothes! And by all accounts not the least bit concerned about it. Can you believe it? Well, what should one expect? Apparently he’s a good friend of Baron Byron.”
    At the mention of Lord Byron’s name, Auntie bristled. She did not favor the young profligate. “And why should that story be of interest to me?” she haughtily replied.
    “Because, my dear Agatha, they say he is wildly attractive, rich as Croesus, exceptionally witty, and totally daring. Brummell already adores him! Lady Harcorte, that cyprian, is drooling for him, and rumor has it”—Lady Vandershmeer looked pointedly at Lilac—”he is unwed.”
    Auntie’s eyebrows lifted contemplatively.
    She ever-so-slowly smiled at Lady Vandershmeer, lacing her arm through the bothersome woman’s. “Come,