“Shethreatenedyou, Mama?” Aunt Kitty asked, sounding incredulous.
Lucas, standing by the window in the vast drawing room, lifted his eyebrows. He hadraised expectations? Not merely hopes, but expectations?
“If she did, Kitty,” the duchess said, “she soon regretted it. I rarely use my lorgnette. I find it blurs my vision rather than enhancing it. But I was very glad I had it beside me on the table. I raised it to my eyes and looked at her through it. I find that words are rarely necessary when I use it thus.”
“You said nothing, Mama?” Aunt Kitty asked. “When she had been so presumptuous and so offensive? You merelylookedat her?”
The duke laughed with a short barking sound. “You are fortunate, Kitty,” he said, “if you have never found yourself on the receiving end of your mother’s lorgnette. How soon did she leave after you looked at her, May?”
“I did not consult the clock,” the duchess said. “No longer than two minutes, though, I daresay. She left. With every appearance of great confusion. I hope, Luc, you did not have your heart set upon marrying Miss Thorpe. Neither your grandpapa nor I could possibly approve of your connecting yourself with a young lady who has such a vulgar mother. The woman’s father, of course, made his fortune in trade. Abingdon would not have honored her with a second glance if he had not needed to marry a fortune. She had no brothers or sisters, it might be added.”
“Luc with his heart set onthatchit?” his grandfather said, just as though Miss Thorpe’s name and Grandmama’s list had never had an encounter with each other. His face had turned a shade of purple. “Hisheartis set upon Lady Philippa Ware, no matter what he says to the contrary. There is nothing vulgar aboutherfamily even if the Greenfields are not actually nobility. I do not know why youeven waste your time on the likes of the Miss Thorpes of this world, May.”
Lucas said nothing, though he was not sorry Lady Abingdon had overreached herself. He and Miss Thorpe had attended the same private concert last evening, and everywhere he had turned, there she was. He had sat beside her for every musical item except one even though he had excused himself and strolled away and then found a different seat every time there was a change of artist. He had somehow been coaxed into filling a plate for her during the intermission and then standing beside her while they ate. He also inexplicably found himself escorting her out to her carriage afterward. He had stood by the open door after she seated herself within, conversing with her while her mother hurried back inside to fetch something she had left behind. It had taken her the devil of a long time to find whatever it was. Every other carriage had driven away by the time she came back out and scolded him for not getting into the carriage out of the cold while he waited.
He had been growing more and more uneasy about the possibility that he would find himself one of these days accidentally making Miss Thorpe an offer of marriage. It was one he knew he did not want to make, even if his grandparents encouraged it. He might be able to tolerate the young lady as a wife. The mother-in-law he most certainly would not.
“Jenny,” His Grace said. “Is Lady Philippa going to be at Almack’s tomorrow evening? You probably know. The two of you have grown as thick as thieves.”
Jenny had sat silently through Grandmama’s account of Lady Abingdon’s visit.
“Aunt Kitty has secured vouchers for me and a ticket for tomorrow night’s assembly after discovering that I would love to go there at least once,” Jenny said. “And yes, Grandpapa, Pippa will be theretoo. I sent a note to Stratton House this afternoon to ask her. She is bubbling over with excitement because two more of her brothers have come to town, including her military brother, who is making a lightning visit to England on official business. She is hoping to persuade him to accompany her and the Earl and Countess of Stratton to Almack’s. Their other brother, Mr.Ellis, will not come, though. He is a widower with a young child.”
He was also, Lucas thought, the illegitimate son of the late Earl of Stratton and, presumably, some courtesan.
“Lucas,” His Grace said, frowning ferociously at his grandson as though he were expecting some defiant opposition. “You will escort your sister and aunt to Almack’s tomorrow evening. Her Grace and I will look in there later.”
“You had better be sure to arrive before eleven,” Lucas warned him. “I do not believe the patronesses would bend the rules even for you, Grandpapa.”
“Hmph,” the duke said.
—
Nicholas looked very splendid when he went off each day in his dress uniform to carry out the business for which he had been sent to England—to ensure that his regiment had sufficient horses for the battle that was surely inevitable in the next month or so.
“Not that there issufficientof anything when the military heads, who know what is needed, have to appeal to politicians here, who know nothing and either do not believe them or else set wheels in motion that turn so slowly we justmightget half of what we need by the time the next war comes along,” he explained to his family at dinner on the night of the dance at Almack’s. “I would not be in Wellington’s shoes for all the money in the world.”
But he was making progress, he reported cheerfully in the next breath. His men would not have to march into battle on foot.
He was looking almost as splendid this evening, Philippa thought, dressed in the regulation knee breeches required for admission to Almack’s because, as far as any of them knew, military uniforms were not acceptable there. Nick would, of course, look gorgeous no matter what he wore.
He could remember the steps to all the dances, including the waltz, he assured Stephanie after she asked. He had heard that waltzing was now allowed at Almack’s. He kept in practice because there were any number of military balls to attend wherever he went. They were sometimes a little thin on ladies, it was true, but he did not usually have any great trouble finding a partner. He grinned and winked at his young sister, who had one arm linked through Ben’s.
“Yes, I believe you,” she said.
“Indeed,” he said when Ben mentioned a neighbor of his at Penallen who had gone to Brussels recently to be closer to his son, an ensign in an artillery regiment. “Brussels is bursting at the seams with visitors, most of them Englishmen, and many of them with their families too. It is somewhat surprising there are enough people left here in London to attend all the balls and whatnot during the Season. All is bustle and gaiety there, with parades and picnics by day and parties and balls by night. Often we fall into bed at dawn, having danced our feet off, only to have to rise a few hours later to go on parade again. Do you miss the life, Dev?”
“Not for a moment,” Devlin assured him.
“Perhaps,” Stephanie said, “there will be no fighting after all. Men can be sosilly.”
“What else would we do with our time?” Nicholas asked, winking at her.
But Philippa knew he was not nearly as carefree, even careless, as he sometimes appeared to be. She had seen him look serious to the point of grimness as he returned from his duties. But then he put on his family face almost as though he were donning a mask.
She was looking forward to the evening at Almack’s. She had been there once before with her mother and had enjoyed herself greatly despite dire warnings about the barnlike appearance of the assembly rooms and the insipid nature of the entertainment and the blandness of the refreshments. Some of those stories, she suspected, were spread by people who had never been granted one of the coveted vouchers and therefore had never actually been there. Or by those who found fault wherever they went and were determined to be miserable.
The patronesses of the famous assembly rooms took their duties seriously and made sure everyone had a partner for the dances. They introduced young ladies to gentlemen they deemed eligible for them. Indeed, Almack’s was often referred to as the marriage mart, a sort of miniature within the larger one that encompassed the whole of fashionable London during the spring months. One never had to fear being a wallflower at Almack’s. It could almost be said that one did not have to fear not finding a husband either if one had been approved to attend the weekly dances there.
