Hugh turned and gave her a startled look. “Adele. How much of that did you hear?”
“Enough.”
Hugh nodded. “She will come around. It will take some time, but… she will come to see how good you are and will cease this useless protest.”
Adele walked into the room and sat beside Hugh on the sofa. “I will admit to a certain amount of naiveté regarding what makes the reputations of members of theton. Will marrying me really hurt your name that much?”
“No. I… how much do you know of your father’s reputation.”
“He is a politician and people do not like him. I have seen some of the ugly rumors in the scandal sheets.”
Hugh nodded. “My friends think most of the stories told about Canbury are false and made up by his political opponents in order to ruin his reputation.”
“Father is ambitious.”
“Yes. And that level of ambition is generally frowned upon by the gentry. I do not much begrudge it.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“Not yet. Owen—that is, the Earl of Caernarfon—is also a member of Lords and is trying to discern Canbury’s schedule so that I can meet with him.”
Adele nodded. “I don’t want to do anything to hurt you or your reputation.”
Hugh smiled. “You are not. Men marry women whose fathers have dubious reputations all the time. A woman’s father does not matter so much as the woman herself. And so manytonmarriages seem little more than financial transactions anyway. Why, I believe Viscount Benton married the daughter of a wealthy commoner so that he could use her dowry to pay off some debts. I believe my reasoning for marrying you is far more sound for a successful marriage.”
Adele’s heart pounded. She reached over and took his hand. “And what is that reasoning?”
“I care about you. I enjoy spending time with you more than I do with any other woman of my acquaintance. When I think about our life together, I can picture it clearly.”
But do you love me?Adele wanted to ask. It was not often that men and women of their stations married for love, but it wasn’t a completely foreign concept.
Hugh answered her unasked question by leaning forward and kissing her softly. Adele sighed into the kiss. She loved the pressure of his lips on her, loved the warmth that spread through her body.
“I put you in the violet room because it is adjacent to mine,” Hugh said. “Mother’s rooms are at the other end of the floor upstairs.”
“Are you implying you’d like for me come to you at night?”
“I most assuredly would, but it is your choice. If you want to wait until the wedding, I shall endeavor to endure our nights apart.”
Adele smiled, cheered that he was giving her a choice. She needed a little time to adjust to the fact that she would be with him. They would be married! “We have our whole lives ahead of us.”
“That we do, my lady.”
Chapter Twenty
George Paulson, theEarl of Canbury kept an office in a squat, two-story building on College Street, close to Westminster Palace. He generally spent his time away from Parliament there, taking callers and appointments with various officials.
Nicholas Vansittart, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, stood in the office now. He and George had been friends since Oxford.
“I can put in a good word for you,” said Nicholas, “but I don’t know if the position you’re after is attainable. If you want to be Leader of the House of Lords, you’d be replacing Liverpool, which I only picture happening over his dead body. The Lord Chancellor may be aging, but he seems determined to hang onto the position. There may be a few secretary positions opening in the state department, but your most likely appointment will be as a diplomat, perhaps to Europe or maybe even India.”
“I’d hate to be that far from my daughter. I’m all she has, you know.”
“Prinny likes you, which works in your favor. However, those scandal sheet rumors…”
“None of those are true,” said George. That was, since the death of his wife, George had taken it upon himself to explore the full range of human sexuality which meant that, yes, he’d taken a male lover from time to time, but he never wore women’s clothing in public. More to the point, he’d been extremely careful for the last year or two, not doing anything that could jeopardizehis chances of winning a position. His ambitions had clearly struck a nerve if his enemies were planting these ridiculous rumors in the newspapers. “You can’t believe the things they say of me in the papers.”
“I don’t, but they do considerable damage to your reputation. We shall see, I suppose. And, to be clear, my job is not available.”
