How Miss Rutherford Got Her Groove Back by Sophie Barnes Page B

a plate of biscuits and offered it to the baroness. “Indeed he is,” she replied coolly. “In fact, we saw him just a little over a week ago. We really had no idea that he would be coming to London, but perhaps Francis knew . . . they are after all related to one another.”
    “Ah yes.” Veronica appeared as if she was attempting to figure out the exact relationship between her friend and Adrian.
    “I did not,” Francis told them bluntly, a dark shadow flickering behind his eyes. “What brings him to London?”
    A bright smile spread across Veronica’s face. It was quite clear that she was pleased with the opportunity to tell them all just exactly why Adrian had come to town. Emily shifted slightly in her seat, her nervous demeanor destroying all attempts she was making at looking indifferent. “Well,” Veronica told them, then paused for dramatic effect as she looked at each of them in turn. “He has come to town to make a formal announcement of his engagement to Lady Kate Clemens. It will happen at the Carroway ball, which, because of this new development, is sure to be all the talk of the town—in fact, it is sure to be an event that we must not miss at any cost.”
    At that Emily did choke on her tea, setting off yet another bout of coughing.
    “Perhaps you ought to see a doctor about that cough of yours, my dear?” Veronica suggested with an appropriate amount of concern. “We don’t want you spraying fluids on people when we’re out in public.”
    “I’ll be just fine,” Emily managed to retort with a sharper tone to her voice than she had intended. She couldn’t, however, guarantee that she wouldn’t die of embarrassment. People were bound to talk—after all, gossip was the top priority amongst the ton . She could hear them whispering even now, wondering why the woman who had been the closest friend of both the bride and groom was in such a foul mood on such an otherwise happy occasion. They might even go so far as to say that she had ruined the evening for everyone. And those who knew why she wasn’t smiling would be wondering why she had bothered to come at all.
    She had been reluctant to participate in Francis’s attempt at making her and her sisters presentable enough to appear at public events. But once she’d been convinced, she’d begun to let the idea of it excite her—if for no other reason than that it stopped her from thinking about love lost. Who would have thought that one of those events—strike that, the most important of those events—would be Adrian Fairchild’s engagement party?
    Emily was suddenly in a thoroughly sour mood. She had come to London to escape from Adrian and Kate, yet now she was about to find herself being dragged off to a ball that was intended to celebrate their love for one another, the happiness of their spending the rest of their lives together—a life that she had so abruptly been excluded from.
    Emily dropped her head in her hands with a groan. This was turning out to be a very long season indeed. Quite frankly, the sooner it was over, the better, Emily decided.

 
    C HAPTER N INE
     
    “M ight I have a word with you?” Francis asked as he addressed Emily with an even expression that told her nothing of what he might be thinking. Still, she had a faint idea.
    They had just seen the back of Baroness Giddington’s bright blue dress and feathers exiting the door, though not before settling upon a mutually agreeable time for the sisters to join her at the dressmaker’s. The dreaded time was set for Friday morning at ten. Beatrice, Claire, and Emily would meet her there and afterward they would go to lunch. In the afternoon they would have a look at all the invitations together in order to decide upon which to accept.
    Before any of this was to take place, however, there was still the small matter of Francis to deal with. And though Emily couldn’t be completely certain, she was still fairly sure that he was extremely annoyed with her. She