Read Online Rainbird's Revenge by MC Beaton - Free Book Online

and mien, an expectation of attracting all eyes to you, which I fear makes the gentlemen decide to ignore you. You are an unknown. The favourites among the new débutantes are already well established. You would do well to copy the air and attitude of Miss Maddox.’
    â€˜Who is she?’
    â€˜The attractive brunette who danced first with Lord Paul.’
    â€˜But she has nothing in the way of looks. She looks like a pug-dog with her little squashed-up face!’
    â€˜Jenny! When will you ever learn that . . . oh! You infuriating girl, you are not paying the slightest heed to a single word I am saying!’
    And Jenny was not. For as the carriage slowed and they approached Mrs Freemantle’s, Jenny looked down from the carriage window and caught a glimpse of the servants of Number 67, sitting around a table in their servants’ hall. It was an odd view, seen as it was through the high-up window, revealing Joseph playing the mandolin and the tops of the heads of the rest as they sang to its accompaniment.
    Lady Letitia and Jenny climbed down. Lady Letitia sent the carriage back to wait for Mrs Freemantle, that energetic old lady having vowed to stay all night.
    â€˜At least Lord Paul seems quite taken with me,’ said Jenny defiantly as they mounted the stairs.
    â€˜And what on earth gave you that idea?’ said Lady Letitia, becoming very angry indeed.
    But Jenny could not reveal she had been listening in the library when she heard Lord Paul describe her, as she thought, as the most attractive lady in the room.
    â€˜And he is much too old for you,’ went on Lady Letitia, seeing Jenny did not reply.
    â€˜Pooh! He is very handsome. And let me tell you this, I am quite convinced Mrs Bessamy said something spiteful about me to make me unpopular.’
    â€˜Go to bed, Jenny,’ said Lady Letitia, and Jenny looked in surprise at her normally tranquil aunt’s furious face revealed in the light of the oil lamp she was carrying. ‘You weary me with your vanity and stupidity and want of courtesy, manners, or generosity of heart! Mrs Bessamy is all that is kind. She told me she was worried over your wallflower status and did her best to alleviate it, but not one gentleman could be persuaded to take you to the floor.’
    Lady Letitia went into her room and slammed the door in Jenny’s face.
    Jenny ran into her own room, threw herself down on the bed and cried and cried. What had gone wrong? Aunt Letitia had always been kind and warm and loving. What had made her say all those terrible things, none of which could possibly be true? ‘I am
not
selfish,’ said Jenny at last, sitting up and scrubbing her eyes with a handkerchief. ‘If it had not been for me, those servants of Pelham’s would have been in dire trouble.’
    Cooper came in to prepare Jenny for bed, but Jenny told the maid to go away.
    The beginnings of a mad idea were beginning to take shape in her brain. She craved admiration as another might crave a drug. For Jenny, her own beauty really existed only in her reflection seen in other people’s eyes. Those servants of Pelham had every reason to be grateful to her. Why, she must be a heroine in their eyes! Pelham had said he would stay all night. She would let herself out of Mrs Freemantle’s, as she had done earlier, and slip along to Number 67 and surprise them. How delighted they would be to see her! How admiring! How respectful!
    Jenny bathed her red eyes in cold water and tucked several stray curls back into place. The night was very warm, and she would not need a pelisse or a shawl.
    Having made up her mind, she no longer hesitated to consider the folly of what she was doing.
    She let herself quietly out of the house and took a deep breath of warm, gritty night-time London air before darting along the street and down the area steps of Number 67.
    â€˜Stop playing, Joseph!’ called Rainbird. ‘There’s someone at the