Read Online The Mandarin of Mayfair by Patricia Veryan - Free Book Online Page B

realized that Katrina was staring at her wonderingly. Her face burned. She said rather feebly, "But— but there is not the need for it to come to that. 'Tis very clear that Jamie would walk through fire for you, so all you've to do is forbid him to fight. Tell August that you
are
going to marry Jamie, and that if he ever threatens him again, you will never talk to him for as long as—"
    Katrina swooped to kiss her. "How good you are. And how glad I am that you came back upstairs. I wondered what had become of you. Why were you so angry when you came in? Is Gideon's hurt very painful? They should neither of them have stayed for the meeting."
    A door had been closed. There was sadness but resignation in Katrina's eyes. With an inner sigh, Gwendolyn thought, "I really had no right to say as much as I did. Well, I tried." She said simply, "I was listening to their meeting."
    "Gwen! How could you?"
    Deliberately misinterpreting that shocked exclamation, Gwendolyn explained, "Well, there is that little cupboard in the red parlour, you know, and I was rummaging about in there one day, looking for a slipper Apollo had taken from your aunt. I could hear Mrs. Vanechurch talking to Pearsall, and I was most surprised when I realized they were not in the corridor as I'd supposed, but in the book room. So today I—"
    "Went into the parlour cupboard to eavesdrop?"
    "Yes, I did. And I know 'twas naughty. But I will tell you, Trina, that if we are not very careful those silly creatures are going to run themselves into a proper bog with this wretched League." She paused, and murmured, "I wonder why it is that little girls grow up, but that men—nice men especially—are always little boys?" She shook her head. "Oh, well, so 'tis, and we must do all that we can to help the poor dears."
    Fascinated, Katrina asked, "How? We are ladies. What can we do?"
    "Queen Maud was a lady! And so was Boadicea, and—and the Queen of Sheba!
They
managed to get things done, and—"
    "But were not Queen Maud and Boadicea put to death?"
    "Oh, dear! Were they?" Gwendolyn wrinkled her brow. "You may be in the right of it. But, after all, in those days everybody who was anybody seems to have been put to death, so perhaps 'tis all of a piece. The thing is—we must do
something
, Trina! Before August—"
    "And your dear brother and the rest of them," Katrina put in softly.
    "What? Oh. Well, of course. You know what I mean." Katrina nodded, and thought, "Yes, my dear. I know exactly what you mean."

Chapter 3
    Fog settled down over the City the following day, making of it a hushed, spectral place, slowing traffic, and causing shopkeepers to look glum as business lagged. By evening the vapours were less dense, but it was penetratingly chill, and the fire in the small dining room at Falcon House was banked high.
    Gwendolyn was the only guest to join the family for dinner. Mrs. Dudley Falcon was in her usual merry humour and invited both girls to join the card party she was giving later that evening. She was a kind and gregarious lady, and had been the wife of Neville Falcon's younger brother. When she was widowed suddenly by a hunting accident, Neville had installed her in his great house, happy in the belief that he'd provided his daughter with a proper chaperone. He had not. Mrs. Dudley, as she was known, was on the light side of fifty and on the heavy side of plump. She was pretty, amiable, lazy, and dedicated to comfort. Her own. She doted on her niece— and was perfectly willing to play chaperone, so long as it did not interrupt her daily ritual. This consisted of keeping to her bed until noon while enjoying breakfast and her voluminous correspondence; spending an hour or so on her toilette and another on luncheon; sallying forth in mid-afternoon for a drive or shopping, or to visit friends; and returning to rest and change clothes before going out to dine or attend the opera or the play, or some social function. The arrangement suited three of the parties