Read Online Bexley-Smythe Quintet 01 - Flight of Fancy by Catherine Gayle - Free Book Online Page A

So even if flying in Lord Haworth’s balloon caused a bit of an uproar, it couldn’t hurt her prospects any more than they already were. Could it? Georgie took a breath, praying that some brilliant argument to convince Haworth to play to her whims would strike her.
    And then it did.
    “ How much does my brother owe you, my lord?”
    Haworth shook his head dismissively. “That’s between Stalbridge and me. I couldn’t possibly discuss it with a lady, least of all his sister.” He turned as though to leave.
    Georgie couldn’t let him get away. “Not even if I could arrange for his debt to be repaid?” she hastily suggested.
    As she’d hoped, that gave Haworth some pause. He slowly turned around, eyeing her in doubt. “And how might you be able to do that? Your brother is a wastrel and a spendthrift. Not to mention a coward, or else he’d have already come to Town to face me himself. How can you convince him to repay what he owes?”
    “ I can’t.”
    He tossed his hands up in the air.
    Georgie rushed on. “I can’t convince him to repay it, especially since he quite possibly can’t repay you. But I can pay you for him.” Well, she could depending on just how much Percy owed. She’d been putting almost all of her pin money aside since she went off to Broadmoor Academy, spending only the smallest amount in case Percy somehow lost the funds for her dowry.
    “ You’re being absurd.” Haworth started to walk away in the opposite direction of where Harry was waiting, so she scurried to walk with him.
    “ I’m not. I’ve been saving for years.”
    She glanced over her shoulder to see Harry following along behind them, keeping the same distance as he’d established before.
    “ You couldn’t possibly have enough to cover his debt,” he scoffed, taking longer strides than before as though in an effort to escape her. “Your brother owes me two hundred fifty pounds.”
    At last count she had three hundred twenty-seven pounds, six pence. “I can pay you all of that and an extra fifty pounds as interest, if you’ll grant me a favor.”
    With that, he came to a sudden stop. “What favor?”
    Georgie’s heart was racing so fast she felt lightheaded. This just might work. “I want to fly, Lord Haworth. I want you to take me up in your gas balloon.”
     
    Cedric was almost to the point of ripping out his hair in frustration from his inability to locate Georgie, when she appeared on the walk before him as though coming mysteriously through the mist with Lord Harrison Casemore at her side. They joined him on the lighted, main pathway, emerging from one of the dark walks. She came to a sudden stop when she noticed him.
    Relief and fury jointly rushed through his veins at the sight of them.
    “ What are you doing here, Monty?” she demanded.
    “ What are you doing alone on the dark walks with Casemore? And why aren’t you with Pippa?” And why in God’s name did the sight of the two of them emerging from the dark together send his heart into palpitations and make him want to cast up his accounts, all at the same time?
    At least it wasn’t Haworth he’d discovered her with. But at the moment, discovering her with any gentleman was an unwelcome sight.
    “ Lord Harrison has been providing me with his escort,” she responded haughtily. “Not that I owe you any explanation at all. But you can rest assured that he’s seen to my protection quite well, thank you very much.”
    His escort ? That was supposed to suffice as an explanation for their joint disappearance, and their subsequent reappearance almost an hour later? “Georgie,” he said, though it came out more like a growl than a word.
    “ And on that note,” Casemore cut in, “I think I’ll leave you two to your discussion.” He ignored Georgie’s scoff at his description of their conversation. “Montague, I trust you can see to Lady Georgianna’s care. Should we expect her to rejoin us, or will you be seeing her home?”
    “ Let Pippa know