The Lady In Question Read Free Page B

same thing: that someone in my position would have gotten in my position in the first place because she had quite fallen head over heels and therefore lost all sense of proper behavior. But it wasn’t like that at all.”
    “I’m afraid to ask precisely what it was like.”
    “It was…” Delia clasped her hands together and screwed up her courage. “Quite the most exciting thing I have ever imagined. The adventure I had always dreamed of.”
    “Adventure?”
    “I’m not certain how else to explain it.” Delia groped for the right words. “It was very much like riding a horse entirely too fast. You know it’s dangerous and will more than likely end badly, but it’s so exhilarating, you don’t really care.”
    Delia returned to perch on the edge of the sofa. “I know this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, but Charles was not at all the kind of man who is usually interested in me. Even you must admit my suitors were inevitably somber in character, serious in demeanor and bent on the altogether critical quest of finding a suitable wife. And to a man they were one and all deadly dull.”
    “Well, yes, they were rather —”
    “Whereas gentlemen who seek your favors are typically dashing and exciting and often have an air of danger about them.”
    “I have never understood it myself.” Cassie shook her head. “We are both precisely the same in appearance —”
    “Yes, but there is something about you.” Delia studied her sister, trying to put her observations into words. “As much as staring at you is like staring at a mirror, there is a difference. In the look in your eye or the tilt of your smile, perhaps. Something that says you could be terribly improper given the slightest provocation.” She sighed and settled back on the sofa. “I obviously look like I would never so much as have an improper thought.”
    “Looks indeed can be quite deceiving, as I have never particularly done anything improper save speak my mind. However, you managed to make yourself the center of scandal.”
    “I did marry him.”
    “And everyone asked why. Good Lord, Delia, people wondered if Wilmont married you for the respectability of your family or your family’s money —”
    “Actually, his solicitor wrote me about that. I am apparently quite well off,” Delia murmured.
    “— or to save your honor. Of course, that would make him a much better man than anyone suspected and would make you…”
    Heat flashed up Delia’s face.
    “Delia?”
    Delia jumped up and crossed the room in a futile attempt to avoid the inevitable.
    “Philadelphia Effington!” Shock sounded in Cassie’s voice. “I can’t believe —”
    Delia whirled to face her sister. “Did I fail to mention the excitement of riding entirely too fast?”
    “You were speaking about a feeling! And blast it all, you were talking about a horse! At least, I thought you were talking about a horse.” Cassie stared, her eyes wide with shock. “You didn’t, Delia, I know you. You couldn’t. You wouldn’t.”
    “I might have.” Delia pretended to study her fingernails. “Once.”
    For a moment silence hung in the room. Delia held her breath.
    “How?” Cassie asked at last.
    Delia’s gaze snapped to hers. “What do you mean, how? ”
    “How did you manage it?” Cassie’s eyes narrowed. “Surely you didn’t take that little horseback ride
    —”
    “Cassie!”
    Cassie ignored her. “— in a library or an empty parlor.”
    “Of course not.” A touch of indignation sounded in Delia’s voice. “That would be most improper.”
    Cassie raised a disbelieving brow.
    Delia ignored her. “Do you remember the night I feigned illness and you and the rest of the family went off to whatever party it was you attended?”
    “Vaguely.”
    “I had a hired carriage waiting to take me here. To Charles’s house.”
    “Oh, nothing improper there.” Sarcasm colored Cassie’s words.
    Delia raised her hands in front of her in a helpless gesture. “And