A Kiss at Midnight Read Free Page A

Mariana’s nose and mouth couldn’t be plumped by a miracle cream made of crushed pearls. “Dimsdale was slightly tardy in his attentions.”
    “Not tardy in his attentions ,” Kate said. “He’s seems to have been remarkably forward in that department.”
    Mariana threw her a look of dislike. “Lord Dimsdale very properly proposed marriage once he understood the situation.”
    “I would kill the man, were I you,” Kate told her.
    “Would you?” She gave an odd smile. “You always were a fool. The viscount has a title and a snug fortune, once he gets his hands on it. He’s utterly infatuated with your sister, and he’s set on marrying her.”
    “Fortunate,” Kate commented. She looked back at Victoria. She was delicately patting her lip over and over again. “I told you to hire a chaperone, Mariana. She could have had anyone.”
    Mariana turned back to her glass without a comment. In truth, Victoria probably wasn’t for just any man. She was too soft, too much like a soggy pudding. She cried too much.
    Though she was terribly pretty and, apparently, fertile. Fertility was always a good thing in a woman. Look how much her own father had despaired over his lack of a son. Her mother’s inability to have more children apparently led to his marriage a mere fortnight after his wife’s death . . . he must have been that anxious to start a new family.
    Presumably he thought Mariana was as fertile as her daughter had now proved to be. At any rate, he died before testing the premise.
    “So you’re asking me to visit the prince and pretend to be Victoria,” Kate said.
    “I’m not asking you,” Mariana said instantly. “I’m commanding you.”
    “Oh, Mother,” Victoria said. “Please, Kate. Please. I want to marry Algie. And, really, I rather need to . . . I didn’t quite understand, and, well . . .” She smoothed her gown. “I don’t want everyone to know about the baby. And Algie doesn’t either.”
    Of course Victoria hadn’t understood that she was carrying a child. Kate would be amazed to think that her stepsister had even understood the act of conception, let alone its consequences.
    “You’re asking me,” Kate said to her stepmother, ignoring Victoria for the moment. “Because although you could force me into the carriage with Lord Dimsdale, you certainly couldn’t control what I said once I met this prince.”
    Mariana showed her teeth.
    “Even more relevant,” Kate continued, “is the fact that Victoria made a very prominent debut just a few months ago. Surely people at the ball will have met her—or even just have seen her?”
    “That’s why I’m sending you rather than any girl I could find on the street,” Mariana said with her usual courtesy.
    “You’ll have my little doggies with you,” Victoria said. “They made me famous, so everyone will think you’re me.” And then, as if she just remembered, another big tear rolled down her cheek. “Though Mother says that I must give them up.”
    “Apparently they are in my bedchamber,” Kate said.
    “They’re yours now,” Mariana said. “At least for the visit. After that we’ll—” She broke off with a glance at her daughter. “We’ll give them to some deserving orphans.”
    “The poor tots will love them,” Victoria said mistily, ignoring the fact that the said orphans might not like being nipped by their new pets.
    “Who would accompany me as chaperone?” Kate asked, putting the question of Victoria’s rats aside for the moment.
    “You don’t need one,” Mariana said with a hard edge of scorn, “the way you careen about the countryside on your own.”
    “A pity I didn’t keep Victoria with me,” Kate retorted. “I would have ensured that Dimsdale didn’t treat her like a common trollop.”
    “Oh, I suppose that you’ve preserved your virtue,” Mariana snapped. “Much good may it do you. You needn’t worry about Lord Dimsdale making an attempt at that dusty asset; he’s in love with