Read Online Love in Three-Quarter Time by Dina Sleiman - Free Book Online Page A

preparing for the most important evening of your sisters’ lives, Robert James Montgomery. Their skill on the dance floor shall pave the way for their place in society, and you will play your part.” Mrs. Beaumont dug into her ham, no longer acting the empty-headed coquette but shifting to stern matriarch.
    Bravo!
Constance thought, until she recalled the pronouncement was not to her liking.
    â€œPlease, Robbie, please,” Molly begged from beside him, her brown corkscrew curls bobbing as she tugged on his arm.
    â€œOh yes, please, Robbie.” Dolly batted her long eyelashes over big doe eyes from across the table, a habit she no doubt learned from her mother. An appalling, manipulative habit Constance must forsake once and for all. Compassion stirred in her chest for Mr. Percy, and she regretted her treatment of him. This plantation house with its space and luxuries had already caused her to slip into her old Gingersnap ways. She must reestablish the new prim and proper Constance Cavendish firmly in place at once.
    Robbie held up his hands in surrender. “Fine. Fine, I’ll stay. For a week, and that’s all. You may have me in the evenings, for I will be working my farm during the days.”
    â€œPlantation!” They all said the word in unison and then fell into laughter at their inside family joke, to which Constance was not privy.
    â€œFine. In the evenings.” Mrs. Beaumont nodded her head in affirmation. “So, let us discuss next week’s dance. We shall invite a few close family friends. Perhaps the Sugarbakers and the Pattersons. Mary, oh, Mary!” The woman bustled in from the kitchen.
    â€œYes, ma’am. You don’t need to be causin’ such a ruckus, ma’am. I’m right in the kitchen as always.” Mary must have been twenty years older than the woman Constance met on the front lawn, although she appeared similar in size and mannerisms. Perhaps a relative.
    â€œMary, remind me to hire musicians for Saturday evening the twelfth.”
    â€œYou have a dinner with the Smiths on the twelfth.”
    â€œOh dear, what about midweek?”
    â€œMr. Beaumont will be gone.”
    â€œThat’s correct. Make it the eighteenth. And we’ll need to send invitations to the Sugarbakers, the Pattersons, and, and…”
    â€œMother, that’s nearly two—”
    She continued as if Robbie had never spoken. “Oh, and Lorimer is due that week. Yes, that would be perfect.” She clapped her hands together prettily.
    â€œMother.” Robbie growled the word this time. No doubt he dreaded every second he would spend with Constance.
    Her heart sank as she thought of two weeks’ dancing in his arms. Then it sank even lower as she considered the option of not dancing in his arms. She longed to dash from the room and all the way back to Richmond. This was a mistake.
    â€œMiss Cavendish will have plenty of time to prove her skills as a teacher by then. Isn’t that right?”
    From somewhere, Constance found the strength, and the accent, to answer. “I shall strive to cover some basics by that time, but…” She wrung her napkin in her lap. Could she bear so many days in the same house with Robert Montgomery? She began to question the entire plan now. Surely the Lord would not ask so much of her. Surely she had not been
that
evil.
    â€œPrecisely.” Mrs. Beaumont patted her coiffed hair. “It is perfect. Mr. Beaumont, you will return by the eighteenth, I’m sure.” Her smile tightened as she said it.
    â€œWell, I suppose I can cut the trip short one day. Of course, darling.”
    Her smile became genuine, and she offered her husband her hand for a kiss. This woman was a true genius at her art. If Constance hadn’t given up on society and all its false ways years ago, she could have learned much from this one.
    Then again, Constance was once a master of this game herself.
    â€œOh, and Miss