Sally James Read Free

and framed in the doorway, her hands to her throat, was the loveliest vision Lord Fordington had ever beheld.
    * * * *
    She was of medium height, slightly built and fragile as Dresden china, with a pale, perfect complexion, flushed now a delicate pink as she gazed with enormous round blue eyes at the scene in the hall. Honey gold curls, short and feathery, clustered round her head, and a delectable lower lip was caught between small, even, pearly teeth.
    'Oh!' she gasped in a frightened, trembling voice. 'I didn't – that is–'
    'Georgiana!' Sir Roderick and Isabella exclaimed in unison.
    'Where have you been?' Isabella demanded.
    'Who is this?' Sir Roderick barked, and Lord Fordington dragged his gaze away from the enchanting damsel and saw behind her a young, obviously nervous, gangling youth dressed in pantaloons of an unfortunate shade of yellow which clashed with the pink-and-cream striped waistcoat, a coat cut with more care for a fashionable outline than the slender form of its wearer, and a once well starched but now wilting cravat drooping forlornly from the over-high points with which the wearer had commenced the evening.
    'Sir!' the youth exclaimed, and snapped to attention, then flinched nervously as Sir Roderick, shaking off Isabella's hand from his arm, bore down upon the guilty pair.
    'Who are you? What are you doing with my daughter?' he demanded fiercely, shaking his fist under the young man's nose.
    To his credit the young man stood his ground, although he gulped and instinctively raised his arm to ward off the expected blow.
    'S-Sir! My name is Reece, Sir! Clement Reece!' he stammered, apparently unable to take his eyes off the menacing fist a couple of inches from his nose.
    'Reece? Reece? Who the devil is that? Never heard of you, sir! Damned upstart!'
    'He is not! Mr Reece is an officer!' Georgiana declared, emboldened at the injustice of this, and stepped forward a pace, letting fall the domino she had been clutching about her.
    It was a mistake to draw attention to herself. Sir Roderick, furious though he was, still retained some instincts of the correct behaviour of a host and had reluctantly restrained himself from attacking the young man within his house, but he had no qualms about venting his wrath upon his daughter. He turned on her so swiftly that she gasped and backed closer to her escort, who was thereby presented with the uncomfortable dilemma of placing himself between the beauty in distress and her outraged parent, or ignominiously leaving her to her fate.
    'Where the devil did you buy that gown?' Sir Roderick demanded as his eyes fell upon his erring child, and his attention was distracted from her companion. 'It's downright indecent!'
    Lord Fordington, no mean connoisseur of female raiment, studied the gown in question. Undoubtedly the low decolletage, and the thin sheer material which clung to her limbs in a fashion that made it obvious it had been dampened, revealed more of her maidenly charms than a prudent parent could have been expected to approve.
    Georgiana blushed but flung back her head defiantly.
    'It is not! It is all the rage! Everyone wears gowns like this and if you think this one is indecent you should have seen some of the others! Besides, I wore my domino all evening!'
    Lord Fordington stifled a grin. Whether Georgiana was aware of it or not, it was by no means as startling a creation as those worn by the charmers the Regent and his cronies entertained, but he was well aware that what men approved of in their mistresses they frowned on in females of their own family.
    Before the enraged baronet could utter further condemnation Isabella stepped forward, calmly wrapped the discarded domino about Georgiana and tried to draw her towards the stairs.
    'If you wore your domino there was scarcely any point in going to such extremes,' she said calmly. 'It is rather too old a style for a girl not yet out.'
    'That's not my fault! I'm old enough to be out. In any event, it was the