The Unofficial Suitor by Charlotte Louise Dolan

to the left, repeating several times until she was sure he must have understood her silent message. Then she stood up and moved a few feet away and pretended a great interest in a little china shepherdess on the mantel.
    Her ploy worked, and after a discreet interval, Mr. Hawke joined her. “My step-mother is most distressed,” Cassie murmured without preamble.
    “So I had noticed,” Mr. Hawke said quietly. “Is there any way I might be of assistance?”
    Fighting off the urge to move at least a foot or two away from this overpowering man, Cassie said bravely, “I am afraid you are the problem.”
    “I? What have I done to distress Lady Blackstone?”
    “You have seen us dressed in—” She could not say rags, because that, of course, was an exaggeration. “You have seen us wearing garments that were not precisely fashionable,” she explained, then waited for him to laugh mockingly. Really, she felt remarkably foolish voicing such a silly anxiety.
    To her relief, he neither laughed nor mocked. “You may tell your step-mother that she has nothing to fear. I shall never by any word or action indicate that I have seen the two of you before this afternoon.”
    “And your friends? Can you speak for them also?” she asked, amazed at her own temerity.
    “They will neither of them say a word.”
    “Thank you,” she whispered before moving away to rejoin her step-mother. “It is all right, Ellen,” she said reassuringly, “Mr. Hawke has promised neither he nor his friends will say anything.”
    Ellen was not completely reassured. Twisting her handkerchief into a knot, she said weakly, “Oh, I do wish we could quit this house immediately. That man makes me so nervous.”
    “I am quite willing to return home at once.”
    “No, no, we must not leave before our allotted time is up. That would be a dreadful insult to our hostess!”
    Cassie sighed. So many rules, and most of them so totally absurd, it might be better if more people did ignore them.
    “Mr. Oliver Ingleby and Miss Cecily Ingleby,” the butler intoned.
    The newcomers were obviously brother and sister, both tall, attractive, and positively radiating exuberant good humor. After an affectionate greeting for Lady Letitia, the girl immediately made her way to Cassie’s side.
    “Oh, I am glad there is someone here under the age of fifty! Aunt Letitia—actually she is my great-aunt—is popping me off this year, although she has told me if I do not meet anyone who suits me this Season, I may wait for next year without worrying that I shall be thought on the shelf. Is this your first Season, too?” Without waiting for an answer, Miss Ingleby continued, “Aunt Letitia is a dear, really, but she has so many old friends—” here Miss Ingleby rolled her eyes, “and I was beginning to think I must be the only young lady being presented this year. I have spent so many hours being fitted for clothes, I vow, I shall be quite exhausted before the Season even begins. Tell me, have you discovered Madame Argenteul? Is she not the most clever modiste?”
    By this time Cassie had realized it was pointless to attempt to answer any of Miss Ingleby’s questions, but Ellen was more experienced with such fluent conversationalists, and she simply began speaking at the same time as Miss Ingleby.
    “She is a treasure, is she not? I have had two dresses of her—
    “Did you see that lovely blue silk she has—”
    “—and I am quite pleased with the results—”
    “—which is shot with silver threads. I am sure it is smuggled—”
    “—and I have already told her I shall be happy to—”
    “—in from France—”
    Trapped as she was between the two chattering ladies, Cassie’s head was beginning to ache. She looked across the room and discovered Mr. Hawke was watching her again. This time, instead of returning his stare, she dropped her eyes modestly, as her step-mother had instructed her to do. It was unfortunate that Ellen seemed to have forgotten another of