Simply Magic

“Did you?” Frances looked surprised. “But he is rather good-looking, is he not? And very charming, I have always thought.”

Susa

“ Calculatedly charming,” she said as she removed her bo

“Oh, dear.” Frances laughed. “He did make a poor impression on you. I suppose he tried to flirt with you?”

“You heard what he said when we first met,” Susa

Frances stepped into the room though she did not sit down.

“I thought his words rather amusing,” she admitted. “He did not mean to offend, you know. I daresay most ladies enjoy such flatteries from him.”

“He is shallow and vain,” Susa

Frances set her head to one side and regarded her friend more closely.

“It might be a mistake to jump too hastily to that conclusion,” she said. “I have never heard of any vice in him. I have never heard him called a rake or a gambler or a ne’er-do-well or any other of the unsavory things one half expects to hear of a young, unattached gentleman about town. Lucius likes him. And so do I, I must confess, though I have never been an object of his gallantry, it is true.”

“I do not understand,” Susa

“Miss Raycroft and the Calverts?” Frances said. “Oh, but they are not really, you know. He is Viscount Whitleaf, high-born, enormously wealthy, and quite out of their orbit. They understand that very well. But they enjoy his attentions-and who can blame them? Life in the country can be exceedingly dull, especially when one rarely travels farther from home than five miles in any direction. And he is very skilled at flirting without ever favoring one particular lady above all others and therefore inspiring hope in her that can only lead to disappointment. Women understand him very well, I daresay, and look for husbands elsewhere. Society often works in such ways.”

“I am very glad, then,” Susa

But as she caught her friend’s eye, she first smiled and then dissolved into unexpected laughter.

“And just listen to me,” she said when she caught her breath, “sounding like a dried-up prune of a spinster schoolteacher.”

“And looking like anything but,” Frances said, joining in the laughter. “I suppose he flirted on the way back to Barclay Court too, the rogue, and you responded with a sober face and a severe tongue? The poor man! He must have been utterly confounded. I wish I could have listened.”

They laughed together again. Perhaps she had overreacted, Susa

“Anyway,” she said, “I have always said that I will hold out for a duke or nobody. I believe a mere viscount must count as nobody.”

They both chuckled at the absurdity of her words. A mere viscount, indeed!

“Come along to my sitting room with me,” Frances said, “and we will order up some tea and have a comfortable coze until the visitors have gone away. It was rather a long walk on such a warm day, was it not? I am thirsty again. But it felt so good to stretch my legs. I have done enough sitting in a carriage during the last few months to last me for the next year at the very least.”

Susa

But Frances had not finished with the topic of the viscount.

“Of course,” she said, “you are quite right to be wary of Viscount Whitleaf, who is well known for having an eye for beauty but who may not have realized at first that you are far too intelligent to respond gladly to empty flirtation and dalliance. You are certainly wise not to be dazzled by him. But, Susa

“I did,” Susa

“You may be right,” Frances admitted. “But I am not yet convinced she is sweet on him. Well, let us dismiss him just in case she is-or just in case he is not heart-free. There is also Mr. Da

“Frances!” Susa

“Oh, but I do.” Frances sat on a love seat facing her friend’s chair after giving her order to the housekeeper, and gazed earnestly at her. “You and Claudia and A

Susa

“Well, for one of you anyway,” she said. “I ca

David Jewell was an illegitimate child, A

“So I am the one?” Susa

“And so you are the one,” Frances said, reaching for both her hands and squeezing them tightly. “You are so very pretty, Susa

“It is not unfair,” Susa

Mr. Keeble was the elderly school porter.

“I do know it,” Frances said with a sigh. “Just as I loved teaching until Lucius forced me to admit how much more I wanted to sing-and how very much more I wanted him. Well, I will say nothing else on the subject. And here comes the tea.”

They were quiet while the tray was brought in and set down and while Frances poured the tea and handed Susa

“And so there is to be an assembly in the village the week after next,” Frances said. “We arrived home at the perfect time.”

“An assembly will be wonderfully exciting,” Susa