The Diabolical Baron Read Free Page A

mortals. I shrink to think of it.”
    “Still, it is a young woman’s best opportunity to meet a future husband. Much of aristocratic Britain gathers in London to mingle. It gives you the opportu nity to meet people you would never discover buried on your father’s estate in Wiltshire.”
    Caroline sighed. “Since the purpose of it all is to catch a husband, I still cannot become enthusiastic. I don’t want to marry; I want to move in here with you. Apart from Signore Ferrante’s house, this is the only place I have ever been comfortable. And while he has been the best and kindest of music masters, I can’t imagine that he would want me to live with him.”
    Jessica’s gaze softened as she looked at her niece. “You know I would love to have you. But you are too young to bury yourself with a widowed aunt and her daughter in an unfashionable neighborhood. Marriage is what you make of it—you can see it as a trap or as a girl’s main chance to change her life. If you didn’t like the way you were raised, attach a man in a different mold from your father. It’s something of a gamble, of course, but it makes life more interesting.”
    Caroline giggled mischievously. “Jessica, you’re in corrigible. You look and sound exactly the way you did when you were breaking all those hearts at seven teen. I was only eight then, but I remember clearly. It’s all very well for you to say ‘attach a man’ as if it were just a matter of making your choice. That may have been true for you, but I have no such magical power over the opposite sex. And I wouldn’t want such power! I can truly think of no happier life than to move in here with you and Linda and your admirable pianoforte.”
    Jessica sighed and applied herself to her sewing for a few moments. While complimentary gentlemen were fond of saying that she looked no more than a girl, she felt the weight of her experiences if not her years. The life of an officer’s wife had been exciting, but also full of fears and constant change. She was thirty years old, had borne a child and buried a hus band, and would never be truly young again.
    “Things change, love. It may seem like the ideal life for you now, but nothing remains the same. Linda will grow up and marry, you might start longing for a nursery of your own. I might even marry myself. One can’t choose a way of life and say, ‘It will stay like this.’’”
    “You think you might marry again? This is the first time I’ve ever heard you mention the possi bility.”
    “While I have accepted the idea of remarriage in principle, it may never happen in practice. My income is not great, but it is adequate, and I do enjoy my free dom. It would take someone very special to make me wish to marry again, and that is unlikely to happen a third time.”
    “A third time? Was there someone besides John?” Caroline looked up in surprise from the now-tuned lute.
    “Oh, just one of those calf-love affairs.” Her aunt shrugged dismissively. “I ruined it through my foolish temper, though I’m sure it was doomed anyway be cause we were both so young. Still, it was very ... in tense. One doesn’t meet too many kindred spirits in a lifetime.”
    Caroline’s curiosity was aroused, but since her aunt had closed the subject, she struck a chord on the lute and said, “Shall we return once more to the dread topic of Almack’s? Tell me what I should wear, then I shall play you some of the new Elizabethan dances I have learned.” She underlined her last words with several toe-tapping measures.
    “Minx! I know perfectly well you have been dress ing as unbecomingly as possible to repel potential suit ors.” She smiled wryly.  “Though it’s unkind of me to admit it, all that has been required is wearing what your stepmother bids you. Her taste is adequate for herself and her high-colored daughters, but does nothing for you, as well you know. When you meet a man you fancy, you’ll start wearing clothes that do you justice.