What business in Cornwall?
“I believe,” the duke said, “the brandy decanter is called for, Miss Ingleby. And inform me at your peril that imbibing more alcohol will merely intensify my headache. Go and fetch it.”
“Yes, your grace.” Jane was quite uninclined to argue.
4
ORD FERDINAND DUDLEY CAME LESS THAN ANhour after Lady Heyward had left. He crashed the door back against the bookcase just as she had done and strode into the library unannounced.
Jocelyn winced and wished he had not sent the brandy decanter away as soon as he had set eyes upon it. He had just finished drinking a cup of chocolate, which Jane Ingleby had told him might settle his stomach and soothe his head. It had not achieved either desirable effect yet.
She melted back against the curtains again, he noticed.
“Devil take it!” his younger brother said by way of greeting. “Old Gruff-and-Grim tried to stop me from coming in here, Tresham. Can you imagine? Where do servants get such cork-brained notions?”
“Usually from their employers,” Jocelyn said.
“Good Lord!” His brother stopped in his tracks. “You really are playing the invalid. Mama used to languish on that chaise longue whenever she had been dancing and gaming for three nights or so in a row and fancied herself at death’s door. There’s no truth to the rumor, is there?”
“There usually is not,” Jocelyn replied languidly. “To which particular rumor do you refer?”
“That you will never walk again,” his brother said, throwing himself down onto the chair on which Angeline had sat. “That you had to wrestle old Raikes down onto the floor to prevent his hacking off the leg. Honestly, Tresham, physicians these days would just as soon pull a saw out of their bags as take the time to dig around for a bullet.”
“You may rest assured,” Jocelyn told him, “that I was in no mood for wrestling anyone to the ground yesterday except perhaps that nincompoop of a surgeon Oliver took out to Hyde Park. Raikes did his job admirably well and I will certainly walk again.”
“Just what I said,” Ferdinand said, beaming at him. “It is in the betting book at White’s. I have fifty pounds on it that you will be waltzing at Almack’s within a month.”
“You will lose.” Jocelyn raised his quizzing glass to his eye. “I never waltz. And I never show my face at Almack’s. All the mamas would instantly assume I was in the marriage mart. When are you going to dismiss that sad apology for a valet of yours, Ferdinand, and employ someone who can refrain from cutting your throat every time he shaves you?”
His brother fingered a small nick under his chin. “Oh, that,” he said. “My fault, Tresham. I turned my head without warning him. The Forbes brothers are after your blood. There are three of them in town.”
Yes, they would be. Lady Oliver’s brothers had almost as bad a reputation as hell-raisers as he and his siblings did, Jocelyn thought. And since the lady was the only sister among five brothers, they were more than usually protective of her even now, three years after her marriage to Lord Oliver.
“They will have to come and take it, then,” Jocelyn said. “It should not be at all difficult since it seems my butler will admit anyone to my house who deigns to step up and rap on the knocker.”
“Oh, I say!” Ferdinand sounded aggrieved. “I am not just anyone, Tresham. And I must protest your not asking me to be your second or even informing me that there was to be a duel. Is it true, by the way, that it was a servant girl who caused all the fracas? Brougham says she came storming into the house after you and got all the way to your bedchamber and gave you a tongue-lashing because she had lost her job.” He chuckled. “I daresay that it is a very tall story, but it is a damned good one nevertheless.”
“She is standing over there by the curtain,” Jocelyn said, nodding in the direction of his nurse, who had stood like a statue ever since his brother’s arrival.
“Oh, I say!” Ferdinand leaped to his feet and gazed at her with the keenest curiosity. “What the devil is she doing here? It is really not the thing, you know, girl, to interfere in a matter of honor. That is gentlemen’s business. You might have caused Tresham’s death, and then you would have swung for sure.”
She was looking at Ferdinand the way she usually looked at him, Jocelyn saw. He recognized the signs—the further straightening of already straight shoulders, the thinning of the lips, the very direct stare. He waited with a certain relish for her to speak.
“If he had been killed,” she said, “it would have been by the bullet of the man with whom he was dueling. And how foolish to call such a meeting a matter ofhonor. You are right to call it men’s business, though. Women have a deal more sense.”
Lord Ferdinand Dudley looked almost comically nonplussed as he took a scolding from a hideously clad servant.
“She comes equipped with a mind, you see, Ferdinand,” Jocelyn explained with studied boredom, “with a double-edged tongue attached.”
“I say!” His brother turned his head and looked at him, aghast. “What in thunder is she doing here?”
“Conan did not complete the story?” Jocelyn asked. “I have employed her as my nurse. I do not see why the rest of my servants should be at the receiving end of my temper for the coming three weeks while I am incarcerated in my own home.”
“Devil take it,” his brother said. “I thought he was funning!”
“No, no.” Jocelyn waved one careless hand. “Meet Jane Ingleby, Ferdinand. But do have a care if it ever becomes necessary to address her again. She insists upon being calledMiss Inglebyrather thanJaneorgirl. Which point I have conceded since she has stopped calling me nothing at all and has begun occasionally addressing me asyour grace. My younger brother, Lord Ferdinand Dudley, Miss Ingleby.”
He half expected her to curtsy. He half expected his brother to explode. This must surely be the first time he had been presented to a servant.
