Read Online Without a Summer by Mary Robinette Kowal - Free Book Online Page B

habit of performing for weddings.”
    The Prince Regent laughed and beat Vincent’s back again. “Ah, you are always a treat. Meanwhile, I need a diversion. These gentlemen have come for an afternoon of pleasure and talk of nothing but uprisings.”
    “Oh, Prinny. You do exaggerate. We also discussed the high food prices.” Sir Lumley waved a handkerchief at him, briefly perfuming the air with lavender.
    “And soldiers,” another gentleman teased. “You must not forget those.”
    Lord Chesterford, who clearly did not understand a jest, shook his finger and his moustache quivered. “Our good men fought for our country and have returned to a thankless home. We serve them ill if they cannot find useful employment. Mark me! The Luddite riots in the north are just the beginning.”
    The Prince Regent held his hands out in mock despair. “Always, you return to riots.”
    “We saw a riot on our wa—” Melody broke off, face colouring with the realisation that she had spoken without being introduced to His Royal Highness.
    “Gracious me.” The Prince Regent peered around Vincent with an expression of some surprise. “Sir David! Ah … I see that you have brought your most worthy wife, and a vision of loveliness.”
    Once, such a comparison between them would have nettled Jane, who had long felt the shadow of her younger and more beautiful sister. The fact that she had found contentment with her situation and Melody was as yet unattached, if not a happy thought, at least relieved her of any symptoms of jealousy. So she was able to receive the Prince Regent’s words with a smile and say, “Your Royal Highness, may I present my sister, Miss Ellsworth.”
    She was less able to overlook the surprise on that gentleman’s countenance or the way his gaze darted from one face to the other, seeking a resemblance. They shared only the shape of their eyes, which they had from their mother.
    The Prince Regent, ever the gallant, took Melody’s hand and bent over it. “A pleasure, madam.”
    “The pleasure is entirely mine, I assure you, sir.” Melody lowered her eyes so she looked through her eyelashes at the Prince.
    “But of course you are required to say that.”
    “Not required, no.” Melody tilted her head toward him as though she were sharing a joke. “I am required to say that I am grateful to be invited—which I am—and that you are most kind to invite me—which would be true, had you known that I was coming—but I am not required to tell you that it is a pleasure to meet you. By that, you may know that I am sincere.”
    Throwing his head back, the Prince Regent laughed. Jane envied her sister the ease with which she made even the most excessive statements charming. She had the Prince Regent firmly in her grasp, along with the rest of his set.
    “Now then, my dear, you had begun to say something when overwhelmed by my Most August Presence. Would you be so kind as to repeat it?”
    “Only … it is about riots again, sir.” Melody dipped her head becomingly. “We saw a riot of Luddites upon our arrival in London, so it is not only in the north.”
    “Well, do not fret. We shall have no riots here .” He looked around at the other gentlemen and said more firmly, as though his word could cause it to be so. “No riots.”
    “My sister has come with us to experience the Season.” Jane pitched her voice so that the other men in their circle could hear, though not so loudly as to be indecorous. She wanted them to know that Melody was Out. “This is her first event in London.”
    “Then we shall direct our attention to pleasure, and leave these topics of unrest for another day. Sir David, Lady Vincent … would you be so kind as to offer us a diversion?”
    Vincent inclined his head coolly, as if a request from a member of the royal family were part of everyday life. His colour mounted, though. From the sudden warmth that Jane felt in her cheeks, she suspected that she had flushed at the attention rather