As she studied his storybook face in the soft light of Mrs.Warburton’s, a question came to her mind.
How many of his mistresses had fallen in love with him?She would wager a good few.She could see a woman making exorbitant demands when the one thing she truly wanted—a permanent arrangement with the handsome, wealthy Lord Leith—was out of reach.
It was a good thing, then, Beatrice thought to herself, that she had no such vulnerabilities.
No, she thought, gazing at his handsome face, not even for a man who looked like Lord Leith could she ever fancy herself in love.
Chapter Seven
He returned tohis home, Leith Manor, to prepare for the opera.In doing so, he had hoped to avoid his mother.He did not usually mind seeing her—in fact, he usually enjoyed it—but Miss Salisbury had disturbed his mind.
In that green dress, she had no longer seemed the inelegant rustic.When he debuted her at the opera tonight, there would be many men clambering for an introduction.The thought made him uncharacteristically possessive.
Probably because he had not bedded her yet, he reassured himself.
Tonight, he would get that act over with, and then he could be reasonable.
He might even be able to take pleasure—as he usually did—in the admiration his mistresses won from other men.
Unfortunately for his plans, as he crossed the entryway, he heard his mother’s voice.
“Thomas, is that you?”
“Yes, Mother.”He walked from the hall into the drawing room.
While he had hoped to avoid a run-in, when he saw her, he found it a comforting sight.She was sitting on her favorite sofa.Her corgi, Bonaparte, was curled at her feet.
His mother was known as a fearsome matron and, in many respects, she was.The Dowager Marchioness of Leith was one of the gatekeepers of Almack’s and so, in effect, his mother decided who was and was not goodton.
But that was not all there was to his mother, as he well knew.His father had died when he was a child and so it had been only the two of them for a long time.And while the world saw her as a rigid arbiter of propriety, at home, she was not what she appeared to everyone else.She wore her title and her reputation like armor around everyone but him and her closest friends.In private, though, she was much softer.
“Darling, are you going to the opera this evening?”
“I am.”
“Mm, are you taking a woman?”
Leith fought the urge to scoff.He would have much preferred if his mother feigned ignorance when it came to his mistresses.But that was not her way.
“Quite.”
He walked to the window, turning his back to her.
“Who is it this fortnight?”
“I am not responding to that question.”
“My, you are touchy this afternoon,” she said, softly.“I am merely curious, darling, and I’ll read it in the scandal sheets anyway.”
He turned.“Fine.A woman new to London.A Miss Beatrice Salisbury.”
“Do I have any chance of meeting her or will she go the way of all the others?”
“Mother,” he warned.
“I will take that as a denial.Well, I merely ask because I, too, will be at the opera tonight.”
He gritted his teeth.Of course, it sometimes happened this way.But he did not relish it.And not tonight of all nights.
