Read Online The Nobody: Signet Regency Romance (InterMix) by Diane Farr - Free Book Online
Authors: Diane Farr
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solemnly up to the portico. Bowing lackeys divested them of their cloaks, and Lady Lynwood handed their invitation to a wigged, gloved, gorgeously arrayed individual who paced slowly before them to an overheated foyer.
“Baroness Lynwood! Miss Campbell! Miss Emily Campbell!” this personage bawled in stentorian tones as they stepped across the threshold. They entered a vast, brightly lit hall thronged with glittering people, and joined a rather loosely organized receiving line. Lady Lynwood immediately began chatting with a hawk-nosed lady in purple sarcenet, so Caitlin and Emily were deeply thankful when Lady Serena rushed up and greeted them affectionately. Serena looked very pretty in her pomona green crepe, and her light brown curls had been coaxed into modish ringlets on either side of her face. She seemed to be in unusually high spirits, and her eyes sparkled with mischief.
“So! You
did
receive the coveted invitation! Have you come to court the society of your betters? Or merely to ape their manners?”
Emily’s soft eyes dilated with alarm, but Caitlin rapped Serena with her fan. “If we ape
your
manners, Serena, Lady Dassinghurst will show us the door!”
Serena gave a choke of laughter. “Much you would care! Do try to acquire a little ambition, Caitlin.”
Caitlin pulled a face. “And toad-eat every titled dowager who crosses my path? No, thank you.”
“Well, it’s a pity you are not inclined to study the art, because you will find any number of instructive examples tonight. Lady Dassinghurst is continually surrounded by—” But Serena broke off, perceiving her brother escorting her mother and Lady Elizabeth in from the hall. “Never mind that! You must all come and say how-do-you-do to my brother. I want to see Elizabeth’s face when she finds you hobnobbing with the Dassinghurst set!”
“Serena, you are incorrigible!” exclaimed Caitlin, and turned in time to see Lady Elizabeth entering the room on the arm of a tall gentleman dressed in the height of elegance, but with none of the extremes of fashion. There seemed to Caitlin to be something arresting about him that immediately drew, then held, her attention.
Serena’s brother has a distinguished air, she thought approvingly. It was due more to his bearing and manner than his exquisite tailoring. Caitlin could not immediately see his face. He was bending his head attentively to hear what his fiancée was saying.
“The Countess of Selcroft! Lady Elizabeth Delacourt! Viscount Kilverton!” came the announcement from the portal. Serena pulled Lady Lynwood’s party back to the entrance to introduce Caitlin and Emily to Lord Kilverton. Lady Serena had spoken of him so frequently, and with such affection, Caitlin had a great curiosity to meet this paragon of brothers who had unaccountably offered marriage to a prig.
While Emily was murmuring a shy greeting to his lordship, and Lady Lynwood was reminding him of certain exploits he had shared with her son James, Caitlin was at leisure to observe Richard Kilverton. He was a good-looking man, with a rather aquiline cast of countenance, a lean, athletic build, and a marked resemblance to Serena. His air of quiet elegance, however, differed from his sister’s lively mischievousness. He had her coloring, and something of her manner; the appreciative gleam in his eye when he looked at Emily lent a good deal of humor to his expression and brought an involuntary smile to Caitlin’s face. Then he turned to meet Caitlin—and she had the oddest sensation that the breath had been knocked out of her.
Her opinion that Lord Kilverton was a good-looking man was instantly forgotten. Caitlin could no longer tell whether he was handsome or plain, and had she been asked she could not have described a single feature of his face. He simply struck her as the embodiment of an ideal. Had she met him before? she wondered dazedly. It must be the resemblance to Serena, she decided, as her hand was taken in a cool,
“Baroness Lynwood! Miss Campbell! Miss Emily Campbell!” this personage bawled in stentorian tones as they stepped across the threshold. They entered a vast, brightly lit hall thronged with glittering people, and joined a rather loosely organized receiving line. Lady Lynwood immediately began chatting with a hawk-nosed lady in purple sarcenet, so Caitlin and Emily were deeply thankful when Lady Serena rushed up and greeted them affectionately. Serena looked very pretty in her pomona green crepe, and her light brown curls had been coaxed into modish ringlets on either side of her face. She seemed to be in unusually high spirits, and her eyes sparkled with mischief.
“So! You
did
receive the coveted invitation! Have you come to court the society of your betters? Or merely to ape their manners?”
Emily’s soft eyes dilated with alarm, but Caitlin rapped Serena with her fan. “If we ape
your
manners, Serena, Lady Dassinghurst will show us the door!”
Serena gave a choke of laughter. “Much you would care! Do try to acquire a little ambition, Caitlin.”
Caitlin pulled a face. “And toad-eat every titled dowager who crosses my path? No, thank you.”
“Well, it’s a pity you are not inclined to study the art, because you will find any number of instructive examples tonight. Lady Dassinghurst is continually surrounded by—” But Serena broke off, perceiving her brother escorting her mother and Lady Elizabeth in from the hall. “Never mind that! You must all come and say how-do-you-do to my brother. I want to see Elizabeth’s face when she finds you hobnobbing with the Dassinghurst set!”
“Serena, you are incorrigible!” exclaimed Caitlin, and turned in time to see Lady Elizabeth entering the room on the arm of a tall gentleman dressed in the height of elegance, but with none of the extremes of fashion. There seemed to Caitlin to be something arresting about him that immediately drew, then held, her attention.
Serena’s brother has a distinguished air, she thought approvingly. It was due more to his bearing and manner than his exquisite tailoring. Caitlin could not immediately see his face. He was bending his head attentively to hear what his fiancée was saying.
“The Countess of Selcroft! Lady Elizabeth Delacourt! Viscount Kilverton!” came the announcement from the portal. Serena pulled Lady Lynwood’s party back to the entrance to introduce Caitlin and Emily to Lord Kilverton. Lady Serena had spoken of him so frequently, and with such affection, Caitlin had a great curiosity to meet this paragon of brothers who had unaccountably offered marriage to a prig.
While Emily was murmuring a shy greeting to his lordship, and Lady Lynwood was reminding him of certain exploits he had shared with her son James, Caitlin was at leisure to observe Richard Kilverton. He was a good-looking man, with a rather aquiline cast of countenance, a lean, athletic build, and a marked resemblance to Serena. His air of quiet elegance, however, differed from his sister’s lively mischievousness. He had her coloring, and something of her manner; the appreciative gleam in his eye when he looked at Emily lent a good deal of humor to his expression and brought an involuntary smile to Caitlin’s face. Then he turned to meet Caitlin—and she had the oddest sensation that the breath had been knocked out of her.
Her opinion that Lord Kilverton was a good-looking man was instantly forgotten. Caitlin could no longer tell whether he was handsome or plain, and had she been asked she could not have described a single feature of his face. He simply struck her as the embodiment of an ideal. Had she met him before? she wondered dazedly. It must be the resemblance to Serena, she decided, as her hand was taken in a cool,
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