"Exquisite!" Lord Crensford's brows snapped together in a frown. "A more pestilential female you would not hope to find. She clung to me just like a leech when she was here for Clarence's wedding. And Mama expected me to do the pretty and entertain her since Teddy was already married at the time. Entertain! She knew how to get into a dozen scrapes a day. I was mortally tired of those freckles by the time she took herself off."
The marquess laughed outright. "That was four years ago," he said. "She just said so. She was fourteen. She was doubtless flat all over and about as interesting as a blade of grass, was she? I would say she has come a long way since then. Didn't you take a good look?"
"I'll doubtless take plenty of good looks in the next few weeks,'' Lord Crensford said wrathfully. ''I can tell you what is going to happen, Jack, as surely as we are standing here. Mama is going to conceive the cork-brained notion that the chit and I should team up for a while—like for the duration of both our lives. And I won't stand a chance. Some pleasant stay at home this is going to turn out to be."
The marquess clapped him on the shoulder. "You and I will team up instead, Ernie," he said. "A pair of confirmed and determined bachelors against a formidable foe—your mother. She cannot possibly win against the two of us, my boy."
Lord Crensford wore a face of the utmost gloom. "You don't know Mama," he said. "We might as well plan a double wedding here and now, Jack, and save ourselves time and energy."
* * *
The Countess of Rotherham had enough tact to realize that two grandmothers, an aunt, and a mother were just too many adults for a nursery that contained only two young children. As soon as the first noisy greetings were over, she left Mrs. Wickenham and Angela in Claudia's care and retreated to her sitting room, where the earl was reading a book.
"How wonderful it is to be surrounded by the members of one's own family," she said. "Is there anything to match the feeling of utter coziness, dearest?"
"Nothing," he agreed placidly. "Mrs. Wickenham is in good looks. And Angela has grown into a pretty little thing, has she not?"
"Oh, remarkably so," she said. "But I always knew she would.Such a sweet and lively young girl."
The earl chuckled. "She will lead the gentlemen a merry dance if Wickenham takes her to London for the Season next year," he said.
The countess seated herself beside him and looked thoughtful. "Dearest," she said, "do you not think she would be quite perfect for Ernest?"
He chuckled again. "I doubt if she would have him, dear heart," he said. "She is a remarkably pretty little thing."
She raised her eyebrows. "Too pretty for Ernest?" she said.
The earl rubbed his chin. ''Well,'' he said, "we love him dearly, of course, because he is our son. But I don't think he can be described as markedly handsome."
"But not ugly either," she said. "It is true that his nose is rather large. And then of course there is his hair. But he is not ugly, dearest. And he is very good-natured.And very loving.It can still bring tears to my eyes to recall how bitterly disappointed he was when he knew that dear Diana was going to marry Teddy, though he said nothing, of course. But he has been the dearest and the kindest of brothers to her ever since. Angela will be fortunate to have him."
"Will be?" he asked teasingly. "It is all settled in your mind, then, dear heart?"
She thought for a moment. "Yes," she said decisively at last. "It would be quite perfect. Ernest will be a steadying influence on her. And she will liven up his life. She is very lively—or at least she used to be, and she still has a face full of mischief. Who could not love the girl at a glance? I am quite sure Ernest is a fair way to loving her already. All the two of them need is a little nudge in the right direction."
"By your hand, I take it, dear heart," he said.
She smiled. "Of course," she said. "But don't worry. I shall be as subtle as I always am. They will never know."
He took her hand in his, smiled fondly at her, and raised the hand to his lips.
"Diana is being a very clever girl," the countess said.
The earl raised his eyebrows in inquiry.
"She is not showing any interest whatsoever in Jack," she said, "even though I have quite cleverly thrown them together on several occasions. That is quite the most perfect way to bring Jack around. He would lose interest in her in no time at all if she were always hanging on his sleeve.Poor Paula.It would be a kindness to tell that girl that he will never afford her so much as a second glance if she continues to blush and sigh whenever he is in the same room as she. I am proud of Diana."
The earl scratched his head. "But how do you know that Diana is not really indifferent to Jack?" he asked. "I mustconfess,dear heart, that I have been thinking that perhaps this would be one of your rare failures. Not that you could be blamed. Diana has shown before that she is a young lady of independent mind."
The countess clucked her tongue and gazed fondly at her husband. ''You know nothing, dearest,'' she said. ''You are a typical man. Of course Diana is taken with Jack. Why else would she ignore him?"
The earl was effectively silenced.
* * *
Diana had indeed been forced into company with the Marquess of Kenwood several times in the days since their arrival, and she did not like the situation at all. It seemed to have become quite an accepted thing that he lead her into the dining room for dinner and seat her beside him. He had been sent—by the countess, of course—to help her cut roses in the rose garden and to turn the pages of her music
as she sat quietly playing the pianoforte in the drawing room one evening.
