Lady in Red by Karen Hawkins Page A

asked.”
    Olivia chuckled. “If he thinks to outwit you, he’ll be sadly mistaken. You never could back down from a challenge.”
    Juliet glanced up from where she sat curled on Honoria’s bed with her book. “Much to her detriment. Remember the time I told her she couldn’t swim across the lake and she—”
    “Yes,” Honoria said, “and we don’t wish to hear that tired story again, thank you very much.”
    “I’d like to hear it again” Olivia said.
    Honoria eyed her sourly. “You would.”
    Cassandra quickly intervened. “Fortunately for us all, Honoria has matured and can easily turn from a challenge now.”
    “Oh?” Juliet asked, her eyes twinkling with laughter. “What about last month when—”
    “Oh enough!” Honoria said, throwing up her hands. “Pray do not bring up every time I have lost my temper and agreed to some foolhardy task! It is a failing of mine, I agree. But I am much better than I used to be, and that is what matters.”
    Cassandra shook her head. “I certainly hope so. I just hope that this time, with the marquis, you are not going too far. Can you not just write the man a letter and ask for another interview?”
    “And make him think I’ve been sitting here, waiting on him for the last two days? No. I cannot do that. It will make me look desperate, and I am most definitely not.” Honoria gathered a shimmering wrap of silver that mirrored the silvered tips of her slippers, suddenly realizing that she’d not thought of the marquis’s devastating kiss the entire time she’d been dressing. It was yet another sign that she was doing the right thing. “I believe I am ready,” she said, drawing on her long gloves. “And while I appreciate all the concern you’ve been showing, please be aware that if there is one thing I understand, it is how to drive a bargain.”
    “That’s true,” Olivia said. “Ned always said that Honoria was up to every rig and row in town and that he’d rather be eaten by one of those horrid snakes in Africa than face her on the auction floor.” She frowned. “I only wonder what he’d say about the marquis?”
    Honoria fastened the small pearl button at the top of her gloves. “The problem with Treymount is that life has given him his way far too often and it has made him a little too certain of himself. Rather like an overfed lion, he thinks he has but to glare and we will all fall dead before him, ready to be eaten at his leisure.”
    Cassandra stood and adjusted a ribbon at Honoria’s shoulder. “That sounds horrid, to be sure.”
    “Oh, not really. Once I arrive at the ball, I shall twinkle the ring beneath his nose. Not much, but enough that he sees it. And then…” Honoria rubbed the silver ring with one finger through the thin material of her gloves, smiling at the warmth that tingled through her hand and arm.
    “And then?” Cassandra prompted.
    “And then I shall dance with Lord Radmere.”
    “Who is that?” Portia asked.
    “Merely the largest collector of antique jewelry in all of Britain. It will drive the marquis mad to see his family heirloom being admired by Radmere.”
    Cassandra sighed. “It sounds like a good plan, but I—”
    “Oh dear, the time! I must be off!” Honoria gave her reflection one last glance and then she dropped a kiss on the cheeks of each of her sisters and gave George a quick hug. “Wish me luck, my dears. I go to war, you know. Not a ball.”
    “Pull anchor and heave the sails!” Olivia said, giving her sister a mock salute. “Canvas well!”
    Portia grabbed up the poker by the fireplace and held it aloft like a sword. “For God and country!”
    Georgie held a startled Achilles over his head. “Take no quarter!”
    Olivia laughed. “Win, Honoria. And if there is some cake at the ball… perhaps you can wrap some up and put it in your reticule?” She rubbed her hands together, a beatific smile on her face. “I do so love cake.”
    “I shall do what I can. Now good night, my pretties.