The Gilded Web Read Free Page B

Miss Pope would start any awkward gossip. Even if she had heard, Madeline’s name had not been mentioned. But it was doubtful that she had been aware of the scandalous conversation going on behind the curtain in the alcove anyway. He had kissed her with sufficient ardor to distract her as he had listened with all his attention. And she had looked suitably witless when he had finally lifted his mouth from hers. Perhaps that was why he had found her disappointing. It was far more intriguing to kiss a female whose manner left one in some doubt over whether one’s hand would be welcomed or slapped if it chose to wander somewhere where it had no business to be.
    It really was not all his fault that he had jumped to such a conclusion about Madeline and Fairhaven. Madeline really had tried to run off with a half-pay officer less than a week after her eighteenth birthday. Was he to blame if he had assumed that Fairhaven’s traveling companion to Gretna was to be Madeline? She had said less than a week before that she would marry him if she chose. And it was just the sort of thing she would do, too, just to spite him. She never had got over the humiliation of being a full half-hour younger than he. Though to do her justice, she had never shown any indignation over the fact that she had been born female and had not therefore inherited one of their father’s junior titles as he had.
    What a very narrow and fortunate escape he had had that night! Lord Eden handed his hat and cane to the doorman at Boodle’s and prepared to enjoy what remained of the night.

    J AMES P URNELL WAS WATCHING the dancers. He had come from the card room just a few minutes before, where he had watched rather than participated. He had danced earlier, with his cousin Caroline and with two other young girls who had been smiling brightly as if they did not mind at all having no partner for the sets that had already begun.
    He felt restless—as usual. He had been glad to leave the country, where he could never feel at home ever again, where his strained relations with his father were more in evidence than they were here, and where he was allowed no hand in the running of the estate. And yet he was not glad to be in London, where the endless social round seemed pointless and silly. It fell upon him to escort his mother and sister to almost all the events of the
ton
. A quiet soiree or a musical evening might coax his father abroad, but balls and routs and the theater were fitting only for females intent on making a showing with the people who mattered. Lord Beckworth stayed at home with his books and sermons.
    Purnell watched broodingly the tall, slender young dancer in blue. She was somewhat older than most of the other unmarried girls, but she had all the freshness and glow of youth. He tended to notice her almost wherever he went, though he had never been presented to her or asked to be. Lady Madeline Raine. She was no prettier than a score of other girls in the ballroom. There was nothing particularly unusual about her short dark blond curls or her eyes, which might be blue or green—he had never been close enough to know which. Her figure was good but by no means unusually so.
    He did not know quite what always drew his eyes. The sparkle, perhaps, that was absent from the women in his own family? Alex was perhaps younger than Lady Madeline Raine, but Alex had never been as young. She had never been given the chance.
    Purnell shrugged his shoulders and turned to search the crowds for his mother and his sister. He saw the former sitting in an obscure corner of the room talking to a faded creature, who was doubtless a chaperone. He crossed the room toward them and bowed.
    â€œGood evening, ma’am,” he said to the faded creature, drawing some color to her cheeks and a surprised smile to her lips. “Have you seen Alex, Mama? I have ordered the carriage to be brought around.”
    â€œShe has gone with Deirdre and Caroline,