“Mama, you’re being unfair now.”He feigned a grimace at her.
She shrugged.“I know.You’re right.But wait until you meet her.Victor, this union must not happen.”
“Don’t worry.Please.I’ll have a chat with her.See if she favors our Richard and suits him.”
“She won’t.”
But if her money does, that’s the end of it.“Let’s be candid, Mama.If she loves him and can overlook his recent problems, she may be the very woman he needs.Have you any indication of that?”
She inhaled and sat back, her imploring gaze on him.“She is forthright, I’ll say that for her.But I am glad you have hit the nail on the head with his scandals.I am so ashamed.Your father and I caused, I thought, enough of an uproar when we married during his year of mourning for his wife.But that was the worst we ever did and much forgiven by society.But this.This is horrid.”
Victor did not blink an eye.With nary a breath, his mother swept past his own scandals.Or rather his wife’s.
She put down her cup and saucer to the tea table.“What do you know of this uproar?”
He exhaled.No way around it, he’d have to discuss the issue that plagued his mother.“Only rumors.The earl of Howitch’s son, John, outlined the matter to me when I dined with him in Naples a few weeks ago.From what I know, it is more fluff than substance.”At least the lady is not with child.
“Sleeping with Wales’s mistress.”His mother fairly seethed.“Good heavens, was he using his head?”
Another part of his anatomy.Victor frowned.“He does not continue to see her, I understand.”
His mother sagged.“True, but it is all so very sordid.”
As infidelity always is.
“I am so relieved to confide in you.You have no idea.I have no one to converse with.Your father does not wish to discuss this.Nor does he wish to discuss his views of Richard’s choice of bride.I doubt your father can recognize that the girl is the hellion she truly is.”
“Tell me why Richard thinks he loves her.”Why he thinks any young woman would take him, given his recent peccadillo with the wife of the duke of Dundalk.
“You know how he is, darling.”She waved a hand to appear carefree, but Victor saw the furrow of her brows.“Quick to choose.”
“Just like the rest of us.”He pursed his lips.“Would we were all as happy with our choices.”
“Stop that,” she scolded him.“You will find a young lady you adore.You’ve been so long without a companion, you’ve forgotten how to look for one.”
“Mama, I’m not cut from the cloth of a husband.”
“Of course you are.Most in the family prove it.Your father and I have been supremely happy.Your sister, Augustine is still infatuated with her husband John after four years.Catherine loves her Colin, the same.She told us last week, they’re to have an addition to their three in December.”
“I will congratulate them when I see them.”His two younger sisters had met and fallen in love with their future husbands in much the same slapdash fashion as their parents.So had he with his wife.The difference was that Victor’s inamorata had proven to be a witch.However, his older half-brother Richard, the marquess of Ridgemont, had yet to fall in love with anyone.In lust, yes.Often.And always with the wrong sort.Why should this latest one be any different?“Tell me more about her, Mama.The sooner, the better.The voices outside,” he said as he tipped his head toward the garden, “include said young lady, I assume?”
“They do.You will meet her and not understand why he is so infatuated.”
“She’s American.”
“Yes.”
“Boldness may be what he needs.And from the sounds of it she likes children.”
His mother lifted a shoulder.“She does.But rumor says she has fifty thousand as her marriage portion.God in heaven knows what the monthly earnings are off that.”
Impressed, he heard her awe at the enormity of the lady’s dowry.A princely sum, worthy of a marquess, no doubt.“That’s quite a tick to owe one’s tailor.”
She mashed her lips together.“He owes no such amount to his tailor.His solicitors, on the other hand, may require a king’s ransom to get him out from under this latest legal action.”
Victor arched his brows.“That bad?”
“I have not asked him.He does not tell.Rumors say Dundalk will wring every penny from him.”
