Simply Unforgettable

visit. And he had promised to call again. Portia fully expected it of him.

I will come back some other time.

Of course you will.

And then he felt fury again.

At least you had the good sense to hire a schoolteacher to accompany her, but the woman really ought to have stopped her from dancing.

To hire a schoolteacher!

The woman!

Frances!

He clamped his teeth together and lengthened his stride. He could never quite decide whether the longing to throttle her was stronger than the hurt and humiliation of her rejection. Or the pain of knowing he would never see her again.

Or the niggling suspicion that she had shown more good sense than he and had saved him from himself. He had had no idea when he set out from

Brock Street

that day that he was about to offer her marriage. He had not even known he was going to the school to see her, for God’s sake.

But calm good sense had never been his forte. He had always forged his way into the future with impulsive, reckless abandon.

He did it again not much more than twenty-four hours after his visit to

Berkeley Square

.

And again it was over Frances Allard.

“Mrs. Melford is in town, I have heard,” the Earl of Edgecombe said at breakfast. It was one of his better days healthwise, and he had got up to take the meal with his family.

For once there had been no ball or late party the night before, with the result that they were all gathered at the table with the exception of Caroline, who had joined a party at Vauxhall with Sir Henry last evening and had not returned home until after the fireworks.

“Is she?” Lady Sinclair asked politely, looking up briefly from the letter she was reading.

“With her sister,” the earl added. “They scarcely ever come to town. I do not know when I last saw them.”

“Oh?” His mother sounded quite uninterested, Lucius thought as he cut into his beefsteak. She was busy reading her letter again.

“They are great-aunts of the present Baron Clifton of Wimford Grange,” the earl explained. “Mrs. Melford made her come-out with my Rebecca, and they remained the best of friends all their lives until Rebecca’s passing. What pretty girls they both were!”

“Ah,” the viscountess said, looking up from her letter again, a little more interested now that she understood her father-in-law was talking about ladies who were virtually their neighbors in Somersetshire.

Lucius suddenly remembered why the name of Mrs. Melford was familiar to him.

So did Amy.

“Oh, but Mrs. Melford and her sister are Miss Allard’s great-aunts too,” she said. “Are they indeed in town, Grandpapa?”

“Whoever is Miss Allard?” Emily asked. “Do please pass the sugar, Amy.”

“She is a lady who has the most glorious soprano voice in Christendom,” the earl told Emily, pushing the sugar bowl across the table to her himself. “I do not exaggerate. We heard her sing when we were in Bath.”

“Oh,” Emily said, stirring a spoonful of sugar into her coffee, “the teacher. I remember now.”

“It is not going to rain, is it?” the viscountess asked of no one in particular, her eyes going to the window. “It will be most provoking if it does. I have my heart set upon walking to the shops today.”

“I believe I shall go and pay my respects to the ladies this afternoon,” the earl said. He chuckled suddenly. “It will be a pleasure to talk with people almost as ancient as I.”

“I shall accompany you if I may, sir,” Lucius said.

“You, Luce?” Emily looked at him in some surprise and then laughed. “You will go with Grandpapa to visit a couple of old women when Mama always says that pulling teeth would be easier than dragging you off to pay courtesy calls?”

“Elderly, Emily,” their mother said with sharp reproof. “Elderly ladies.”

“I will go too,” Amy said, brightening noticeably. “May I, Luce? May I, Grandpapa?”

“Well, I am not going,” Emily declared. “I am going shopping with Mama.”

“Nobody asked you, Em,” Amy pointed out. “Besides, Mrs. Melford and her sister are the great-aunts of my friend, and I particularly want to meet them.”

Lucius was left to wonder, as he got ready for the visit later in the day, why he