The Bachelor List Read Free

Mayfair Lady
on the table.
    “Oh, it's a dreadful thing!” Lady Armitage exclaimed. “Lord Armitage won't let it in the house. Where did you get it?” She reached a hand towards it with an eagerness she couldn't disguise, although her mouth remained in a moue of distaste.
    “In Elise's Salon on Regent Street,” Chastity responded promptly. “She had three copies on sale.”
    “And I saw several in Helene's,” Prudence put in. “She had the most delicious straw bonnet in the window. I couldn't resist going in to try it. Quite impractical in this rain, of course. But there were copies of the broadsheet right there.”
    “For sale?” exclaimed Lady Armitage. “It was never for sale before.”
    “No, but I think there's more in it now,” Constance said thoughtfully. “Some of the articles are really quite interesting. There's something in here about the Maguire wedding that you might enjoy.”
    “Oh, really, well, I . . .” Lady Armitage's hand hovered over the sheets. “Perhaps I could just take a peek.”
    “Keep it,” Constance said with an airy gesture. “I've read it already.”
    “Oh, how charming of you, my dear, but I couldn't possibly take it home. Ambrose would have a fit.” She folded the sheets carefully during this protestation.
    “Leave it in the retiring room when you've finished with it,” Prudence suggested casually. “No one need know you'd read it.”
    “Oh, I shall tear it up and throw it away,” Elizabeth declared, deftly tucking the sheets into her handbag. “Such a scandalous rag, it is.”
    “Quite so,” murmured Chastity with a tiny smile. “The Maguire article is on Page 2. We'll see you at the Beekmans' soirée this evening. They have an opera singer, I understand. From Milan, I believe.”
    “Oh, yes, I shall be there. It's not dear Armitage's cup of tea, but I do so adore singing. So charming.” Elizabeth patted her throat as if preparing to break into an aria.
    The sisters smiled, murmured their farewells to the Member of Parliament for Southwold, bowed again in unison, and left the salon, their heels clicking on the marble floors.
    “How are we going to make any money if you give the broadsheet away?” Prudence demanded as they waited for Constance's hat and umbrella.
    “It's one way to create demand,” Constance pointed out, regarding her somewhat sad-looking hat with a grimace. “I knew the feather would be ruined.” She peered into the mirror as she adjusted the pins. “Perhaps I can replace the feather and keep the hat. What d'you think, Prue?”
    Prudence was diverted by the question that appealed to her highly developed fashion sense. “Silk flowers,” she said. “Helene has some lovely ones. We'll go there tomorrow. Then we can see if she's sold any
Mayfair Lady
s
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”
    “So what did you think of the Right Honorable Gentleman, then?” Constance inquired as they went out onto Piccadilly. She laid gentle stress on Max Ensor's official title as a Member of Parliament. It had stopped raining and the pavements glistened under the feeble rays of the late-afternoon sun.
    “Certainly distinguished, and quite possibly pompous,” Chastity pronounced. “We're bound to meet him if he's Letitia Graham's brother.”
    “Mmm,” murmured Constance, looking up and down the street for a hackney cab. She raised her umbrella and a carriage clattered to the roadside beside them, the horses' wet flanks steaming in the now muggy summer air. “Ten Manchester Square, cabby,” she instructed the coachman as she climbed in, her sisters following.
    If Prudence and Chastity noticed their sister's reluctance to impart her own impressions of Max Ensor, they said nothing.
             
    Max Ensor gazed thoughtfully after the three sisters as they left Fortnum and Mason. He was convinced now that not only he but also Elizabeth Armitage had been exposed to a degree of gentle mockery. He wondered if Elizabeth had noticed it. Somehow he doubted it. It had been so