"Dear aunt!" Roger said. "May I speak to your butler about bringing around the carriage?"
"Tell him half an hour," she called as he turned to leave the room. She turned to Georgiana. "I am sure Ralph would consider it unexceptionable for you to drive in the park with my nephew, dear. But then Ralph never did have much of a notion of how to go on in society. You are fortunate indeed, Georgiana, to have such an indulgent husband. My dear Chartleigh would have called out the man who dared to so much as talk to me without his consent."
"Yes, I am fortunate," Georgiana agreed, smiling warmly at her mother-in-law. "How dreadful it must be to have a husband who does not trust one's good judgment and character."
She rose to her feet and left the room to fetch her cloak and muff for the ride in the park. How dreadful she was becoming, she thought with some remorse, digging in her claws just like a cat.
"My mother-in-law does not approve of my driving out with you, you know," she said to Roger a few minutes later as his phaeton was maneuvering its way in the direction of the park.
"She never did trust me after discovering me at the age of eighteen fondling one of her scullery maids in a broom closet," Roger said turning to grin at Georgiana.
"How shocking!" she said. "Did you really?"
"And she would disapprove of this outing a little more if she knew that you had written to me this morning asking for it," he said. "Do you have no notion at all of proper behavior, Georgie?"
"Certainly," she said. "But if I had done the proper thing and waited until I saw you next, I might have waited for weeks."
"Quite so," he said. "And I cannot imagine any female having the fortitude to deprive herself. To what do I owe the honor, my dear little cousin?"
"I have been thinking," she said, "and I believe you are right. It would do Ralph the world of good to gain some experience with other women."
"Spoken with a stiff upper lip and a breaking heart, doubtless," Roger said. "But I mistrust the gleam in your eye, Georgie. Out with it. What are you planning? To catch him red-handed in compromising circumstances so that you may beat him over the head with a frying pan?"
"No," she said, turning and looking at him with wide eyes, "I mean it, Roger. You must persuade him to take a mistress."
"Are you relinquishing all interest in him?" Roger asked. "Or are you planning to sit back for a suitable number of months or years, patiently twiddling your thumbs until he has the experience to make an interesting husband?
"Neither," she said. "I am going to be his mistress."
Roger gave her his full attention. A carter shouted angrily as his horses swerved toward the center of a crowded road. "I believe I have missed a step in this very fascinating and quite scandalous conversation, Georgie," he said. "Hang on a minute. Let me coax these brutes through the park gates before you continue. I have the feeling I am going to need all my concentration to listen to you."
Georgiana did as she was bidden and sat primly beside Lord Beauchamp, hands clasped in her muff, feet in their warm half-boots set side by side on the footrest before her.
"Now then," Roger said at last, "let me hear this plan of yours, Georgie. I would wager my fortune on its being quite priceless."
"Has he met that dancer yet?" Georgiana asked. "Has he begun a liaison with her?"
"By no means," Roger said. "I do not believe he is even interested."
"And she is a little like me, you said?" Georgiana asked.
"Absolutely not!" he assured her. "Except a little in height and build, I suppose. No, she has not nearly your beauty or delicacy of feature, Georgie. And probably none of your indelicacy of tongue, either."
"That will be good enough," she said. "It will be your task, Roger, to persuade Ralph that he does want her. I shall impersonate her."
"What?" Roger began to laugh. "You would have to dye your hair bright red and smear your face with cosmetics at the very least, Georgie."
"How disgusting!" she said. "But that will be quite unnecessary, of course. I assume the assignations would be at night?"
"Probably," he conceded.
"It will be easy enough then," she said. "A darkened room, a heavy veil over my face and head, a feigned voice, and the disguise will be complete."
Roger had drawn the horses almost to a halt. He held the reins loosely in one hand and continued to laugh. "Impossible, Georgie," he said. "Do you seriously believe that your own husband would not recognize you?"
"Yes," she said. "He would not even see me. Are you to make the arrangements? I imagine so, since I do not believe Ralph would know how to go about setting it all up. Then you must tell him that this dancer is somewhat eccentric and refuses to let herself be seen except on the stage. The room where I receive him can be quite dark, can it not? And the bedchamber can be completely without light. And I will not need to talk a great deal. I do not imagine such women talk much, do they, Roger? They are too busy with other matters."
"Georgie!" Roger said, turning a grinning face in her direction. "You are putting me to the blush. Please remember that, unlike you, I am unmarried and unversed in such matters."
