To Win the Lady Read Free Page A

would appreciate your abilities.’ She paused but did not give
either girl an opportunity to reply before going on. ‘He was as blinkered as
one of his precious horses over the pair of you. Now we must do something about
it. You will put yourself in my hands.’ She sighed heavily and made room on the
cluttered side-table for her cup and saucer. ‘I shall do what I can for you,
though I think it may be too late for you, Georgiana.’
    ‘No, it isn’t,’
Felicity cried. ‘Georgie is a wonderful sister to me, so capable and caring,
and she will make an admirable wife for someone.’
    ‘We’ll see,’
their aunt said, though there was doubt in her tone. ‘If you wish to keep Rowan
Park, Georgie, we shall have to find some gentleman interested enough to take
that as a dowry. A more mature gentleman, obviously.’
    ‘Some old
bufflehead!’ exclaimed Georgie. ‘I would as lief remain single.’
    ‘And how much
longer do you think you can go on before the whole place goes to rack and
ruin?’
    ‘It won’t,’
Georgie said stubbornly.
    ‘Oh? You have
buyers and sellers beating a path to your door?’
    ‘No, not
exactly, but there have been a few. We have to give them time to become used to
the idea...’
    ‘That a woman
can run a business? Never! Anyone who did arrive could only be coming to gape
or gull you into bad bargains. You are not so lacking in wit that you cannot
see that, surely?’
    ‘Then they will
have their come-uppance, for I know a good horse from a bad one, so you need
have no fear I shall be gulled,’ Georgie said, and though it was no less than
the truth it did not stop her from recognising the accuracy of her aunt’s
assurance that men would not do business with a female. Those that had put in
an appearance had come out of curiosity or to try and cheat her, but when
they’d found they could not they’d gone away empty-handed. It might have given
her a sense of satisfaction, if it had not also meant that business was lost.
    ‘Late in the
Season as it is, you will come back to London with me, the pair of you, and I
will endeavour to introduce you to all the eligibles,’ her aunt said. ‘Henry
has been gone a year now and you have mourned long enough.’
    ‘I cannot be
spared from here,’ Georgie told her, though she recognised that her aunt was
right. Tucked away on the borders of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, seeing
no company but each other, she and her sister were becoming almost bucolic, and
though she did not mind that for herself it was wrong for Felicity. She had
been mothering her sister ever since their mother died many years before and
she was determined, now that Papa had also passed away, that she would be a
father to her too. And that meant giving her a Season and doing her best to
find her a husband. She had decided on that before their aunt’s arrival; all
Mrs Bertram had done was to bring the decision forward. ‘But of course Felicity
must go, if she would like to. I am very grateful to you for offering to
sponsor her, for I could not have done it before next year at the earliest.
Neither do I have your contacts; you can open doors I never could.’
    ‘I should like
that above everything,’ Felicity said, trying to keep the eagerness from her
voice for her sister’s sake. ‘But I do not want to leave you here alone.’
    ‘I shan’t be
alone. There are servants and outside staff and more than enough to keep me
occupied. And there is the new filly...’
    ‘A filly?’
Felicity asked eagerly. ‘Oh, how wonderful! Did you have any trouble?’
    ‘None at all;
it came away as sweet as a nut.’
    ‘Georgiana!’ cried
Mrs Bertram, shocked to the core. ‘How can you mention such... such delicate
matters in the withdrawing room?’
    Georgie
laughed. ‘It is hardly a delicate matter, Aunt, which is why I wear old clothes
for it.’ She turned to Felicity. ‘She is a little beauty. I’m going to call her
Warrior Princess.’
    Felicity
clapped her hands and nothing