Read Online The Dollar Prince's Wife by Paula Marshall - Free Book Online Page B

pillage it separately—or together?’
    Cobie’s crack of laughter was spontaneous.
    â€˜Neither, I’m resting. I’m having a holiday which I haven’t done since I last saw you. My foster-sister wishes me to marry, hence my earlier comment. My foster-father wants me to settle down. Sir Alan, I suspect, wants me to think of a future in England—the Dilhorne branch here has become too respectable. He believes I may be a buccaneer and wants to have the pleasure of watching one of the family live up to its somewhat dubious past. My foster-father’s father was transported to New South Wales and made his pile there. You may judge how legitimately if I tell you that I am supposed to resemble him somewhat.’
    Mr Van Deusen thought that the resemblance might be stronger than that.
    â€˜Your grandfather?’ he ventured.
    Cobie’s grin was nasty. It came all the way from San Miguel, and belonged to the boy gunman who had terrorised that outlaw township.
    â€˜Oh, that would be telling. Now give me your address, both here and in the States, and after that we had better return to the reception. My brother-in-law suspects me of wanting to escape my responsibilities to him and his wife, and he is determined that for once I shall conform.’
    â€˜That would be a small miracle in itself,’ remarked Van Deusen thoughtfully. ‘Though outwardly you are a modelof the perfect English gentleman, no transatlantic odour stains your person.’
    â€˜Aren’t I just,’ agreed Cobie cheerfully. ‘The original chameleon, that’s me. Now, let us go back, and I will introduce you not only to the ineffable Violet, who is temporarily bound to me with hoops of steel, but to several of her friends who are as accommodating as Kate’s girls in the Silver Dollar, if a little cleaner. We mustn’t let your stay in London be disappointing in any respect.’
    Oh, I’m sure it won’t be that, thought Mr Van Deusen, following Apollo back into the ballroom, not with Jumpin’ Jake to entertain me!
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    Perhaps, ironically, the first person whom they met when they were about to leave the library was innocent young Lady Dinah Freville. Dinah, bored by the whole wretched business of pretending she was enjoying an event where everyone’s eyes passed over her unseeingly, was just entering it in search of more agreeable entertainment.
    She stared at Cobie and the man to whom he was speaking, or rather, with whom he was laughing. A man whom she had heard Violet describing as ‘yet another Yankee vulgarian to whom Kenilworth wishes me to be polite’.
    Well, he couldn’t be all that vulgar if Mr Grant was enjoying his company so much. She smiled at him, and said, a trifle breathlessly, ‘Were you bored, too, Mr Grant? Won’t you introduce me to your friend?’
    It was true that he was a rather unlikely friend for Mr Grant. He was middle-aged with the hard face which Dinah had come to recognise as belonging to those visiting Americans who had, in society’s words, ‘made their pile’. Although Mr Grant, reputed to be immensely rich by his own efforts, was not like any of them.
    Mr Grant was smiling at her now, and saying, ‘Lady Dinah, I should be delighted to introduce you to an old friend of mine, Mr Hendrick Van Deusen. His nickname is the Professor because he is immensely learned. I first met him nearly ten years ago when I took a long painting holiday in the American Southwest, and he was kind enough to look after me—I was such a tenderfoot as they say over there. It was rather dangerous territory, you see.
    â€˜We lost touch with one another once my holiday was over, and I am delighted to meet him again in an English country house, and introduce him to my hostess’s sister.’
    His smile was even more saintly than usual when he came out with this preposterous and lying description of his violent Western odyssey.
    Mr