“You’ll set up a matchmaking agency?”
She couldn’t read his tone, so chose to take his words at face value. “Why not? Alas that so many military men can’t afford to marry, especially on half pay.”
“And any number might prefer the single life.”
Like you?With your comfortable, female-free rooms.“All the more need for a gathering place,” she said, “without gaming and hard drinking.”
“A benevolent cause,” he agreed. “But the Abbey can’t be ignored.”
Kitty managed not to curse. For a moment she’d enjoyed that vision of the future, with the Kit Kat Club revived, but in the spacious town house with the funds to be generous. However, at best she’d spend a couple of months in Town, and that would be during the season when there’d be less need for a gathering place.
As they entered his building he said, “Our box is available for tomorrow at Covent Garden. I gather the theaters are never full these days.”
“Mourning has gone beyond reason. I’ve even had narrow looks because of my blue cloak. Perhaps some think I should dye Sillikin black!”
“Do you have half mourning to wear to the theater?”
“It’s necessary? Then it’s good that I brought some. What about tonight?”
“I doubt anyone there will care. The invitation was from Major Hal Beaumont. You might know him.”
Did she detect an edge to that? “There were a great many men, and I don’t have your memory.”
“He’s without an arm now.”
“Ah! Such wounds are more memorable, though too common by far.” They climbed the stairs. “He served in Canada, yes? A very pleasant gentleman. Didn’t he marry an actress?”
“He did. Will you object to dining at their house?”
“Of course not.”
“Of course not,” he echoed, but he didn’t seem displeased.
They entered his rooms in a sort of harmony, but Kitty was aware of discord beneath. He would simply have to learn to trust her. They took lunch together, talking about a safe subject: the house.
“Mrs. Grant would like a water boiler and a Rumford stove in the kitchen,” she told him.
“By all means. We can see if it’s possible to install the hot-water piping to the bathroom.”
“There isn’t one. Only tubs to be set up in bedrooms and no space to create one, either. But it needs a general refurbishment. I need not count the expense, need I?”
“Short of silver-plating the walls, no.”
“Would anyone?”
“Nothing is beyond the foibles of the insane rich.”
Which touched on the question of how rich they were. As she poured more tea, Kitty said, “I gather that much of the viscountcy’s money went to Isabella.”
“The investments and such, but the viscountcy produces a decent income, and I have money of my own. You needn’t count the pennies.”
“That will be pleasant.” The discussion itself was pleasant, but would he turn moody whenever he encountered her with her military friends?
As they finished their meal, Braydon said, “I’ve been considering what you said about the fifth viscount. He mostly stayed at his club?”
“That’s what Mrs. Grant said.”
“I don’t recall any expenses from a club. Some memberships, yes, but if he was living in one for months on end, there should be more.”
