LITMIR.BIZ

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gave a little chuckle.

      “I wondered if you would think of that. I thought of it myself and that is why I waited so long before setting out for London.”

      “What have you done?”

      “I have collected quite a considerable sum through sheer cleverness.”

      “How?”

      “I sent bills to the lawyers, which I had made up myself.”

      “What sort of bills?”

      “Bills for books, for school uniforms, for all sorts of miscellaneous things. I thought that they might be suspicious but they paid up quite happily.”

      There was so much triumph in the young voice that the Earl could not help smiling.

      “I can see you are extremely resourceful, Petrina.”

      “I have to be,” she answered. “Now that my Papa and Mama are dead, I have no relatives left except poor old Cousin Adelaide, who really has one foot in the grave.”

      The Earl did not reply and after a moment she went on,

      “I am sure I have enough money to get myself settled. Then, when I am the talk of the town, there will be nothing my Guardian can do but hand over my fortune.”

      “Supposing he refuses?”

      Petrina gave a little sigh.

      “Of course he might, in which case I shall have to wait until I am twenty-one when I get half of it or twenty-five, when I get the whole of it.”

      “I have a feeling that, as in most wills, there is a proviso if you marry.”

      “Of course,” Petrina agreed, “and that is why I have no intention of getting married and handing all my money over to a husband to do what he likes with it.”

      She paused before she added scornfully,

      “He might be like my Guardian and keep it all to himself, giving me nothing.”

      “All men are not like that,” the Earl commented mildly.

      “Claire tells me that Society is full of money-grubbers, young aristocrats who are on the look-out for a rich wife to keep them. I shall fare so much better as a Lady-Bird, I am quite certain of that.”

      “As you seem to have a very low opinion of the male sex,” the Earl remarked, “I cannot imagine that you will find the men you would associate with particularly attractive.”

      Petrina thought this over for a moment and then she said,

      “I need not make big financial demands on them. Claire’s brother has told her that his mistress costs him a fortune every year. She demands carriages, horses, a house in Chelsea, and masses of jewellery, far more than he can afford.”

      “I don’t know who Claire’s brother may be, but I should not take his description of the Beau Monde as entirely reliable.”

      “He is Viscount Coombe,” Petrina said, “and Claire says he is a ‘Tulip of Fashion’.”

      It was one of the few accurate things that Petrina had said to him so far, the Earl thought to himself.

      He knew the Viscount and thought him a pleasant but rather stupid young man, who was wasting his allowance from his father, the Marquis of Morecombe, in a spendthrift manner which had not gone unnoticed in the Clubs of St. James’s.

      As if she knew by his silence what he was thinking, Petrina exclaimed,

      “You know Rupert.”

      “I have met him,” the Earl admitted.

      “Claire thought that he would do me very well as a husband, especially as he is always wanting money. But, as I explained to her, I don’t want a husband, I want to be independent.”

      “I think you must realise that it is utterly impossible,” the Earl said.

      “How do other women become Lady-Birds?”

      “They are not usually heiresses to start with.”

      “It is no use being an heiress if you cannot get your fingers on your own money,” Petrina commented with inescapable logic.

      “If you take my advice, I suggest that before you do anything drastic you call and see your Guardian.”

      “What shall I gain by that?” Petrina asked him. “He will doubtless be so annoyed by my leaving school that he will send me back under armed guard. Then I shall have to escape all over again.”

      “I think if you explain to him that you are too old to be at school any longer and that all your friends have made their debuts, he will see reason.”

      “Reason!” Petrina snorted. “He has not seen reason up until now. Why, why out of all the men in the whole world, should Papa have chosen him to be my Guardian? I expect he is old, strait-laced and doubtless religious as well, so he will disapprove of anything amusing.”

      “And why should you think he will be like that?”

      “Because Papa, having lived an exciting and adventurous life himself, wanted to protect me. He was always saying, ‘when you grow up, my darling, you must never make the same mistakes as I have’.”

      “And had he made a lot of mistakes?”

      “I don’t think so. Not as far as I was concerned,” Petrina answered. “But he fought quite a number of duels over beautiful ladies and so I expect he was referring to them.”

      She gave a little exclamation and flung out her hands.

      “Whatever it was, here am I saddled with this beastly old Guardian! When I think of all my money locked up in his safe or hidden under his bed, I could scream!”

      They drove on for a little while in silence.

      Then the Earl said,

      “I told you I have no desire to become involved in your mad escapade and I make no promises, but perhaps, seeing the circumstances in which we have met, I could speak to your Guardian.”

      Petrina turned round to stare at him in surprise, her eyes very wide.

      “Would you really do that?” she asked. “That is so kind of you. I take back all the things I have been thinking about you.”

      “What were you thinking?” the Earl asked curiously.

      “I thought that you were rather top-lofty, stiff-necked, the grand old man stuffed with wisdom and condescending to the poor little peasant girl who knows no better.”

      The Earl laughed as if he could not help himself.

      “You are the most incorrigible brat I have ever met in my life. I cannot believe that you are really serious in your intentions and yet, because you are so obviously unpredictable, I am half-afraid that you are serious.”

      “I am entirely serious,” Petrina assured him. “And, if you go to see my Guardian, I shall hide myself, so that if he says ‘no’, he will not be able to find me and I can go on with my own plans.”

      “Your own plans are not only entirely impractical, they are exceedingly reprehensible,” the Earl said sharply, “and would not be considered by any woman who might call herself ‘a lady’.”

      Petrina laughed.

      “I knew we would get round sooner or later to the subject of being a lady. ‘A lady does not go out walking without her gloves, a lady never answers back, and a lady does not walk in the street unescorted or go dancing until she is fully grown-up.’ I am fed up with hearing about ladies! They lead the most boring, dull and restricted lives. I want to be free!”

      “The sort of freedom which you envisage for yourself is absolutely impossible.”

      “Only because you

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