Elisabeth Kidd by A Hero for Antonia Page B

years—incapable, indeed, of doddering along to more than one modest evening entertainment at a time!—even to be considered as a prospective suitor. Antonia was torn between relief that Isabel did have some principles and a renewed awareness of the width of the eight-year gap between herself and her niece. But mainly she was amused at the notion of the obviously virile Kedrington in a grandfatherly role.
    This last seemed to have occurred to his lordship as well, for an incipient smile played over his harsh features, giving Antonia a fleeting picture of what he must have looked like at Isabel’s age. But he was twice that now, and while Antonia had to be grateful that Isabel had recognised the fact, even if her aunt had not, she had an impulse to take her to task for her unintended discourtesy.
    But Kedrington caught Antonia’s eye just then, and smiled, so that she knew he was more amused than offended, and he answered Isabel’s question by saying that no sensible person would wish to be seen everywhere , for then people might come to expect to see them anywhere , which did no one’s credit any good.
    Presently the company repaired to the drawing room, Antonia saying that the second principle of hospitality at Wyckham was that ladies and gentlemen were not separated merely to allow the former to enjoy a comfortable prose and the latter their cigars and port. Anthony Fairfax had never seen any reason that a sufficiently large drawing room should not accommodate both interests, and the elder Miss Fairfax poured wine for the gentlemen in expert fashion.
    She then recommended to Mrs Curtiz that she give the viscount a tour of the portrait gallery; carefully placed Isabel within Mr Gary’s line of vision; and drew Isabel’s doting godfather off to inspect a marble mantel piece recently unearthed from a storage shed and added to the decor.
    However, Imogen promptly upset this little manoeuvre by beginning the tour with a portrait of Maria Fairfax in her wedding gown, which hung over the mantel in question, causing Kedrington to turn his eyes in that direction. With a change in the conversation, the rest of him followed. He pursued Antonia steadily around the room and toward the windows, where, she having exhausted her schemes to avoid a tête-à-tête with him, he caught her behind a large bowl of hothouse flowers and well out of earshot of the others.
    “Why, Lord Kedrington,” she said, assuming the offensive, “how persistent you are! I thought we had quite worn you down.”
    “If either you or your niece makes any further reference to my advanced state of decrepitude, Miss Fairfax, I shall expire on your carpet and leave you the unenviable task of removing my emaciated remains to the churchyard.”
    He made this remark in so absurdly petulant a tone that Antonia gave way to a smile. “I do beg your pardon, my lord, but I assure you, Isabel’s ... ah, reference ... was as much a shock to me as it was to you!”
    “Pray do not mention it to her,” he said, dropping his affronted pose. “She never meant it in any but the most innocent way and would only be mortified to have any ulterior motive ascribed to her.”
    “You are very perceptive,” she remarked, a little surprised to find him so.
    But he gracefully forestalled any gratitude she might have expressed by saying, “I am sorry not to meet your sister-in-law this evening. I trust her indisposition is not a serious one?”
    “It is serious in the sense of chronic, but the indisposition is mainly for effect,” Antonia told him. When he looked puzzled, she explained, “Maria has chosen to make herself more interesting by pretending to be an invalid. We have found it kinder to allow her this little eccentricity than to attempt to dissuade her from it.”
    She hoped that her voice did not reflect her reluctance to mention Maria at all, but Kedrington appeared to find nothing amiss, merely noting by the way that he had an elderly relation who was much the