The Husband Season. Mary Nichols

      ‘I shall not stoop to pick them up, Mark. I collect I told you, I have no intention of marrying again.’

      * * *

      ‘I wonder how long he will be in town,’ Cassandra mused. ‘Do you think he will come to my ball if I invite him?’

      ‘Oh, so you are going to set your cap at him, are you?’ Sophie said.

      ‘Why not? He is not unhandsome and he has a title.’

      ‘And wealth,’ Lucinda put in.

      ‘How do you know that?’ Sophie demanded.

      ‘I asked Papa and he said he has a vast estate in Yorkshire and owns a woollen mill, as well.’

      ‘Yorkshire. I am sure I should never want to live there,’ Sophie said.

      ‘No doubt he would bring his wife to town as often as she wanted to come,’ Lucinda said.

      ‘You, too, Lucy?’ Sophie queried.

      ‘What do you mean?’

      ‘Both of you bowled over by a handsome face and a few compliments.’

      ‘Oh, so you are not, I suppose,’ Cassandra said.

      ‘Of course not. Anyone can learn to pay compliments. Besides he is too old and a widower and I will not play second fiddle to a dead wife.’

      ‘I didn’t know that,’ Lucinda said.

      ‘What does it matter?’ Cassandra was not to be put off. ‘She can’t hurt anyone, can she? I am going to ask Mama to invite him to my come-out ball. He will be duty bound to stand up with me.’

      ‘Then, I wish you joy of him,’ Sophie said.

      She knew she was being silly, but Viscount Kimberley disturbed her more than she was willing to admit. Her embarrassment at finding the man who had rescued her from the soldiers was her brother-in-law’s cousin was profound. She could not treat him like a stranger, could not dismiss the whole incident with a shrug of her shoulders, especially as he had afterwards seen her with Reggie in his phaeton. How much of that would he tell Mark? Mark might tell Jane and she would be fetched home in disgrace. If only tonight had been their first meeting, then she might have felt the same way as her two friends. She envied them. He was not laughing at them.