Page 61 of Bookshop Cinderella

“Delia?”

He had no chance to say more before he was enveloped in one of his cousin’s affectionate hugs. “Darling Max! I’m back at last.”

“So I see,” he replied, his voice slightly muffled by a mouthful of ostrich plumes. “When did you arrive?”

“Not five minutes ago,” she replied as she pulled back. “The bellboys haven’t even brought my luggage yet.”

“Knowing the way you travel, that Herculean task will take at least ten minutes, so we have time for a visit.” Ducking the playful smack she aimed at his head, he held up his glass and gestured to the liquor cabinet. “Care for a drink?”

“I’d adore one. Whisky, please,” she added before he could even ask. Sinking down in one of his suite’s comfortable wingback chairs, she plucked out her hatpin and removed her enormous hat of straw, ribbons, and feathers. “I need something strong after the Channel.”

“Crossing that bad?” he asked with sympathy.

“Isn’t it always?”

Unable to contradict the legendary tumult of the English Channel, he handed her a glass containing a generous two fingers of whisky, then he sank down in the chair opposite hers. “How was Rome?”

“Beastly hot already, and it’s only May. But enough about my trip,” she added, tossing aside her hat. “You simply must tell me everything that’s happened while I’ve been away.”

“The Epicurean Club banquet was a huge success. Escoffier—”

“I don’t mean the banquet,” she cut in impatiently. “You can tell me all about that later. What I want to know right now is what on earth this business with Evie is about.”

His hand tightened around his glass. “What do you mean? I explained in my letter—”

“Yes, yes, the girl’s working herself to death, could do with a holiday and a bit of fun, so you want me to show her the delights of the season and introduce her to some suitable young men.”

“Well, there you are, then.” He leaned back with a shrug. “I’m not sure what you expect me to add.”

“Max! Stop being such an oyster. From your description, the fellow who was courting her does sound dreadful, and I agree that Evie deserves far better than the likes of him, but nonetheless, it’s not at all like you to play matchmaker.”

“I’m not,” he corrected at once, pasting on a little smile. “You are.”

“I’m happy to do so, as I already told you in my letter, and I agree that she needs a bit of fun after the life she’s had, but you really have to tell me what inspired all this. Why such interest in dear Evie?”

“I explained that. That scoundrel hoping to take advantage of her put my back up. And then, the poor girl’s flat was flooded—”

“Yes, darling, I know you’ve a soft spot for a beauty in distress, but there must be more to it than that, and I insist on knowing everything before we go any further.”

He sighed. “I suppose I have to tell you how the whole thing came about, but be warned: you won’t approve.”

That conclusion was confirmed a few minutes later when Delia interrupted his narrative at the point of the Oxford letter to ask, “Have you gone absolutely mad?”

That was perfectly possible, but he didn’t say so. “Not at all,” he replied, assuming an air of dignity. “I may have been a bit drunk at the time, I admit, but that’s neither here nor there—”

“A bet? You’re playing with Evie’s life and future to win a bet, and you don’t call that mad?”

“I know it seems unorthodox, but—”

“Unorthodox? Of all the...I am...I can’t imagine what you...”

He took quick advantage of his cousin’s inarticulate spluttering. “I don’t see how you can fault me here. Really, Delia, if you had heard the way Freddie and his friends were denigrating her, and for the shallowest, most puerile of reasons, you’d have been as angry as I was, and you’d applaud my actions.”

Delia heaved an aggravated sigh. “It must have been galling,” she conceded, “for Evie’s an absolute angel, and to hear such things would have gotten my back up, too.”

If Max thought he was out of the woods with that concession, her next words showed him he was mistaken. “But what does the expulsion of Freddie and his friends from Oxford have to do with it? Why should you care if they behave themselves during the season?”

He took a hefty swallow of whisky before he replied. “Because I promised Helen I’d look after the lad.”

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