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depend upon if I needed help, but she has bullied me ever since I was born. Having five children of her own hasn’t altered one iota her determination to mother me. I don’t know why; I’ve got a more than adequate mother of my own.” He picked up Lady Linton’s hand and kissed it lightly.
    She smiled at him lovingly. “No one has ever successfully bullied you, my son.”
    “Not now, perhaps,” he retorted, “but when I was a child I suffered unmercifully from her sisterly interest in my affairs.”
    Lady Linton moved a little restlessly on the sofa, then stood up to go rearrange some flowers on a side table. She was a woman of sixty or so, with beautifully coiffed white hair and a remarkably flexible figure for her age. “I had better warn you,” she said finally. “Maria’s friend Lady Eastdean and her daughter Caroline have joined us for the Christmas holidays.”
    “What!”
    “Now, Philip,” said Lady Linton pacifically. “Lady Caroline is a beautiful girl. All Maria wants is for you to meet her.”
    “I do not need Maria to find a wife for me,” he said quietly and deliberately, but Lady Linton did not like the set of his jaw. She knew the obstinacy that lay hidden under her son’s usually gentle speech and manner.
    “You do not have to marry the girl, Philip,” she said now, a trifle astringently. “But she is a nice child. There is no need to ignore her just because her mother is one of Maria’s friends.”
    “I hope I have more courtesy than to ignore a guest under my roof,” he replied a trifle stiffly. Then, with a glitter in his eyes his mother recognized, he continued, “The fact that it is my roof doesn’t seem to worry Maria. I don’t mind her visiting—that is, I do mind but I will put up with it. But it is the outside of enough for her to be inviting half of her acquaintance to join her!”
    “Two people are scarcely half her acquaintance,” his mother pointed out gently. “And she didn’t invite them. I did.”
    At that he frowned. “You did? But why, mother? Christmas is always a family party.”
    “I like Lady Caroline,” his mother replied. “And it is time you were getting married, Philip.”
    * * * *
    As he went upstairs to his bedroom to change for dinner Linton’s brow was furrowed. It did not smooth out when he encountered his sister in the hallway. “Oh, there you are, Philip,” she said in her clear, imperious voice. “Come into my room. I want to speak to you before dinner.”
    Without replying he followed her in, and when she turned to look at him his frown was more pronounced. There was little in Lady Maria Selsey’s appearance to produce such an unpleasant look. She was an extremely beautiful woman whose statuesque blonde loveliness had not been impaired by the birth of five children or by her present pregnancy. “Has Mama told you about Lady Caroline?” she demanded immediately.
    “Yes,” he replied. His cupped voice ought to have given her warning but she plunged on.
    “She is the loveliest, sweetest thing Philip. I do not think there is a girl to equal her around today, and as a patroness of Almack’s I think I may say I get to see them all. She will be going to London this spring but I wanted you to meet her first.”
    “Maria,” he said in a quiet, dangerous voice, “if you ever do this to me again I swear to you I will humiliate you, mother, and myself by leaving immediately. I will be polite to Lady Caroline this time because mother has asked me to be, but never again. Do you understand me?”
    “I understand you,” she replied sweetly. “Don’t be angry, Philip. I’m only doing this for your own good.”
    “Maria,” he said grimly, “you have told me that ever since I can remember. Don’t help me any more. What do I have to do to make you understand? I simply cannot keep fleeing from my home.”
    “Is that why you went to London?” she asked curiously. “Because I mentioned your obligation to get married once or