A Regency Match Read Free Page B

but—”
    â€œThere can be no ‘but.’ Your behavior was inexcusable . You rushed headlong into a shocking scene without giving the least thought to what you were doing.”
    â€œBut I was so sure the gentleman was Bertie—!”
    â€œ Bertie , ha! Have you any idea whom you accosted in that vulgar way?”
    Sophia shrugged. “They called him Marcus, I think,” she replied, “but that’s all I know about him. Except, of course, that he’s quite the rudest, most top-lofty coxcomb I’ve ever—”
    â€œThat ‘coxcomb,’ I’ll have you know, is none other than Marcus Harvey, Earl of Wynwood, a gentleman of impeccable character and laudable reputation, whose mother, Charlotte Harvey, happens to be one of my dearest friends.”
    â€œCharlotte Harvey? Do you mean Lady Wynwood ? The same Lady Wynwood who’s invited us all to spend a fortnight in her home in Sussex?” Sophia asked incredulously.
    â€œThe very same. And how we are to face her now, I shudder to imagine.”
    There was a moment of silence. “Well, I, for one, don’t intend to hang my head,” Sophia said bravely, holding up her chin as if to demonstrate the manner in which she intended to face Lady Wynwood. “I’ve done nothing so very terrible to her son, after all.”
    â€œOnly made him a laughingstock,” her grandmother reminded her.
    â€œI made myself a laughingstock. He was just the … er … recipient …”
    â€œIt is my understanding, young lady, that Lord Wynwood is extremely well-bred, and not the man to enjoy any sort of unwarranted notice or public scrutiny, both of which you forced upon him in good measure.”
    â€œIf he is so high in the instep as to be disturbed by a petty little incident at a private party, I have no sympathy for him.”
    â€œA petty little incident at a private party indeed! There were three hundred people present who saw you fling your arms around the neck of a perfect stranger—a man who then had to remove himself from your clutches by sheer force!”
    Sophia whitened. “Remove himself—? Oh, Grandmama, was it as bad as that?”
    â€œEvery bit of it,” her grandmother declared coldly.
    Sophia’s eyes filled with shame. Lady Alicia’s anger melted at the look in her granddaughter’s face, but she didn’t permit the softening to show in her expression. The girl must be made to see that her rash behavior could have painful consequences.
    Sophia stared at her grandmother, blinking away the tears that had welled up in her eyes. “Well, I don’t see what g-good it will do to stand here and … and review the matter,” she said, her chin quivering. “I admit that I made a mistake. I thoroughly embarrassed myself … and you, too. I’m s-sorry. But it will do no good to t-talk about it.”
    â€œVery well, then, I’ll drop the subject. You may go to bed. But I hope that the incident will teach you to be less impetuous in future.”
    The subject was destined to come up again, however, the very next morning. No sooner had the ladies sat down to breakfast when they were interrupted by the arrival of Bertie’s parents, Sir Walter and Lady Isabel Edgerton. Lady Alicia’s son and daughter-in-law could wait no longer to pay their respects to the parent whom they hadn’t seen for eleven years. Sir Walter, Alicia’s younger son, was a stocky, florid-faced man who was often described as blunt. From the top of his short-cropped hair to the tips of his square fingers, the adjective applied. His disposition exactly matched his physique, for Walter was incapable of subtlety. He said what he thought with unblinking directness.
    His wife, on the other hand, felt that it was her mission in life to soften the effect of her husband’s directness on the world. Soft, round and placid herself, she could not believe that people