Timothy felt gobsmacked. “This is not a joke.”Ella knows this place.Does Lady Elspeth?It did not seem to be the place for such a lady.
“No. You could learn a lot from Mrs. Dove-Lyon.”
“I just wanted to drop off a packet of letters.”
“You could wait and talk to Matthew first. Did Gordon not tell you how he reconnected with Ella after almost a decade?”
“He did, but that was a long time ago. We were at sea, and I was still feeding the fish after every meal. I do not remember many of the details.” In an effort to dispel his jealousy of Gordon and Ella, he had put thoughts about their reunion out of his head, along with any consideration of her friend. Now they circled back around.
Luke gestured at the house. “Mrs. Dove-Lyon brought them together at one of her masquerade balls. Gordon did not want to marry anyone but Ella, but he thought she was lost to him forever. The Lyon made it happen.”
Timothy silently watched more arrivals—nobility of every class and rank—and tried to absorb the business model that had led so many to seek out this place. He had purchased a gambling club from his brother Mark—At Wheel’s End—more as an investment than any real interest in the actual business of running such an establishment. He employed two managers who staffed and ran the hell, filing reports with his London-based solicitor, who, in turn, sent Timothy a quarterly summary via one of the packet boats.
He had never considered the existence of competitors or how they operated. He knew there was a surfeit of them. Gambling remained one of the most prevalent and ubiquitous pastimes of the aristocracy, and it remained a sideline of many other types of businesses, such as pubs or men’s clubs.
Yet Mrs. Bessie Dove-Lyon—a woman—had found and carved out a unique place for her establishment.
“How does she do it? The matchmaking?”
“Primarily through a network of spies throughout theton.And a bit of extortion is not out of the question. She knows everything abouteveryone. Do not be surprised if she knows you, when you arrived at Falmouth, and what your business is here. She also games the matches through bets and interviews.”
“So she makes them feel as if they have a choice. That they are participating. Clever.”
“She is rather gifted at appealing to a person’s sense of pride. Are we going in, or are you going to stand here, perusing and speculating as usual?”
Timothy peered at his brother. “Are you implying I do a great deal of perusing and speculating?”
“I am not implying. I am stating it directly. Since you were a child. Your reluctance to take any kind of action is notorious. None of us truly believed you would get on that boat in 1814 until you actually did it. Neither did Gordon. He later wrote that you spent three days on the dock watching it being loaded and talking to the crew about tidal movements and crossing conditions. And I would remind you that I found you today outside Embleton House, staring at it, as if you had never seen it before.”
“I thought cautious deliberation was a virtue.”
“It is. Inaction is not. Occasionally, dear brother, you need to take a leap before you look.”
“Except that in this family, falling is not an acceptable option.”
Luke’s brows furrowed. “You have not spoken to Mark lately, have you? He has fallen so many times—physically as well as metaphorically—that he has permanent damages.” He gestured at his left leg. “And I did not exactly acquire this limp by succeeding in my efforts.”
Timothy’s chest tightened. “Yet my family consigned me to failure before I even left school. No one thought I would make a good soldier, and most doubted I would even make a decent vicar. Why do you think I got on that boat in the first place?”
Luke paused, staring down at the tip of his cane a few moments. “Then we did you a disservice. We did not mean that you would fail without trying but that the usual paths for latter sons did not suit your personality—not your ability to succeed. In truth, your faith has never been that strong. And although you wanted to explore the world, you once got seasick in a rowboat on the Serpentine. I also suspect Mother did not want any more of her sons to be maimed by combat.”
Timothy absorbed this. “Maybe. But I do think I have chosen a good path. Exploration suits me. So does business.”
“Because Gordon helped you.”
“Yes.”
“So accept help with this campaign of Mother’s to see you wed. If not from her, then—” He nodded at the blue building at the end of the row.
“Leap before looking.”
Luke grinned. “Consider it being as frugal with your time as you are with your money in business.”
“And if I break a leg when I fall?”
“I have extra canes.”
Sunday, 16 April 1820
