Page 55 of More or Less a Countess
Unless…
Violet grabbed Hyacinth by the shoulders, her grip frantic. “Tell Grandmother you’re ill, and can’t attend Lady Westcott’s rout tonight.”
“What? No! I won’t lie to our grandmother.”
“You’ve already lied to her! You told her I had a dreadful cold, remember?”
Hyacinth tried to shake her off. “No,youtold her that. I just didn’t contradict you.”
“It’s a lie, just the same, so one more little one can’t make any difference. Please, Hyacinth. Lord Dare can’t see both of us tonight, or he’ll know I’ve deceived him.”
“Dear God, Violet, you’re coming unhinged.” Hyacinth stared at her, her own eyes widening as Violet’s fingers dug into her shoulders. “Stop that! Even if I agreed to remain at home, it only postpones the inevitable. You can’t keep on like this, Violet. You have to tell Lord Dare the truth.”
“I know. I will, I—no, don’t look at me like that, Hyacinth. I swear it this time. I will, but not tonight, at a rout with Grandmother and Lady Westcott and every gossip in London in attendance. Oh, please, Hyacinth. If you’ll only help me tonight, I promise I’ll confess the whole of it to him tomorrow when he calls.”
“But I’ve been perfectly healthy all week. Grandmother won’t believe I’m illnow.”
“She will! Of course she will. She always believesyou. Just say you’ve caught my cold, and have a sudden headache, and feel faint.” She gave her sister a hopeful look. “If you could manage a swoon, that would be—”
“I amnotgoing to feign a swoon, Violet!”
“But you will feign an illness, won’t you?” Violet clasped her hands under her chin, her eyes pleading. “Please? I vow to you if you just help me this one last time, I’ll set everything to rights tomorrow.”
“But what will you say to Lord Dare tonight? You’ve spent all week refusing his calls. He’s sure to demand an explanation, and then you’ll have to lie to him again.”
“I won’t have to say a word to him. I intend to stay far away from Lord Dare.”
Violet sounded more confident than she felt, but it wasn’t a lie, precisely. She didintendto stay far away from Lord Dare. Whether he managed to find her out despite her best efforts was another matter.
So far, he’d been remarkably persistent.
“What, you think you can avoid him all night? He’s going to be looking for you. Why, I daresay he’s arranged this entire evening in hopes of seeing you. Indeed, he acts like a man whose heart has been affected.”
Not his heart, but a different organ altogether.
“It hasn’t. He hasn’t…we haven’t…” Heat climbed up Violet’s neck. “No part of him has been affected, I assure you.”
Aside from one, and a rather sensitive part, too, but Hyacinth didn’t need to knowthat.
“No, Violet. I should have refused to participate in such a deceptive scheme from the start. I’ve made a mistake, encouraging you in this, and it ends this minute. I won’t lie to our grandmother.”
Violet recognized the mutinous expression on Hyacinth’s face, and her heart rushed into her throat. She gulped in several deep breaths to calm her racing pulse and tried to gather her thoughts. There had to be another way out of this scrape. She just had to think…
“Wait!” She seized Hyacinth’s arm again. “I’ve got another idea.”
But Hyacinth was already shaking her head. “I told you, Violet. I won’t lie to our grandmother.”
“You won’t have to—not to Grandmother, or anyone else. You won’t have to do much at all, aside from…well, it’s a small thing, really—”
“Oh, just say it, won’t you?”
“Once we arrive, you’ll have to hide.” Oh, dear. It sounded much worse when she said it aloud, but perhaps Hyacinth wouldn’t mind—
“Hide?”
Hyacinth’s mouth fell open, and Violet winced.
Shedidmind.
