In the Arms of the Heiress (A LADIES UNLACED NOVEL) by Maggie Robinson Page B

little while. One hates to lose one’s figure as one ages, as you will one day find out if your reckless behavior doesn’t lead you to an early grave. Dr. Fentress has given me an iron tonic and I’m getting stronger every day.”
    Louisa curbed her reckless tongue. “I’m glad to hear it, but it’s time you took care of yourself. Perhaps a smaller house would suit you better.”
    “A smaller house? What nonsense! Rosemont has been in my care for over twenty years. You’ll not find so much as a speck of dust under your bed. I hope you do not think I’ve shirked my duty.”
    Grace was certainly not crawling under furniture with a duster herself. Louisa did not want to argue quite yet with her aunt, although it was clear she was spoiling for a fight. The woman had never met anyone she hadn’t tried to dominate, and for far too long she’d intimidated Louisa. But no more. Louisa was twenty-six years old, practically ancient. She’d crammed a lot of living into the past year of independence and was not about to cave under Grace’s scrutiny.
    “I don’t want to tire you out, Aunt Grace. We can talk tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow! Why, I’ve arranged for a welcome-home dinner for you tonight. I’ve asked Dr. Fentress, the Merwyns, Mr. Baxter, and a few others. I hope your husband’s headache clears up—everyone is just dying to meet him.”
    Damn. Louisa had hoped for more time before she threw Charles Cooper into the brine of the Rosemont social sea. Mr. Baxter was her man of business at the bank. He was not going to make some sort of legal fuss about her marriage, was he? She hadn’t thought to ask Mrs. Evensong to forge a marriage certificate for her, not that the woman seemed likely to participate in a real fraud. “Oh, you shouldn’t have gone to the trouble. Are you well enough to come down to dinner?”
    “Of course I am! I hope you can say the same. It’s not as if you’re fresh off the boat,” Grace said. “You spent several days in London at Claridge’s, didn’t you? Hugh heard you were driving around in your awful little car frightening the horses.”
    Hugh. Louisa had made a lucky escape there if he was in London and hadn’t tried to see her. It would have been awkward to produce Maximillian at the dock when she hadn’t even met him yet.
    “Yes, we stayed in town for a few days. Maximillian had business to attend to.” Louisa had seen the tattered journals he’d tucked under his arm when he left his boarding house, and she was curious about them. They were probably buried beneath his new clothes in his trunk, but it wouldn’t be sporting of her to go digging for them.
    Would it?
    Louisa acknowledged she found Captain Cooper to be a bit mysterious, and it wasn’t only because of his eye patch. He’d easily confessed to his humble roots, so his past was clear enough, but there was something—
    “Are you listening to me, Louisa? Either you’re chattering like a magpie or off in your own little world. I swear you will be the death of me yet.”
    No such luck
. “I beg your pardon, Aunt Grace. I was remembering Monte Carlo.”
    “Gambling with all those foreigners. How vulgar. What about Monte Carlo?” Grace asked crossly.
    “Oh, nothing of importance. I shall see you tonight.” Louisa bent to give her aunt a reluctant peck on the cheek and then made her escape. She didn’t return to her parents’ suite but to her own rather humble girlhood bedroom. Things were exactly as she left them last fall, a silver hairbrush black with tarnish on her dressing table and a stray bit of ribbon sticking up from a drawer. So much for Grace overseeing domestic perfection.
    Louisa’s small dressing room held dresses seasons out of date. Aunt Grace had said it was a waste to buy new clothes when Louisa never went anywhere except to church. She had more or less lived under house arrest until her twenty-fifth birthday, going only to the home of the elderly Merwyns for the occasional dinner. There were