“Now don’t mistake me. I am in just the position I’d like to be in life, my dear.” Her chaperone tossed the needlepoint onto the settee cushion next to her. “I correspond with the close confidants that I do have, and the subject matter is much more thought-provoking than the typical parlor-room talk. And infinitely more entertaining than gossiping about your comings and goings. No offense intended.”
Reggie pawed at her knee, and Amanda let him jump into her lap. “No offense taken,” she said faintly. “But how did you know …?”
“That you were wondering how the marquess knew of your predicament? Based upon the timing of your inquiry into my social life, it was the logical conclusion.”
Amanda’s cheeks heated. She had shown a boorish lack of interest in the woman’s life, except as it pertained to Amanda’s own concerns. And she was beginning to realize that Marcus’s aunt was infinitely more compelling than the woman let on.
“Would you like a drink?” Lady Mary asked.
It seemed like the perfect time for a drink. Amanda reached behind her for the bell pull, but her chaperone waved her down. “Don’t bother the domestics. I can pour a bottle just as well as they.”
The older woman stood and sauntered to the sideboard. She uncapped a bottle of sherry and poured them each a full glass.
Amanda didn’t know how to phrase her next question. “Lady Mary, you aren’t quite as …”
“Addlepated as you’d thought?” She handed Amanda her drink. “I know, dear. And you aren’t as meek as you think, either.” She resettled herself on the settee and took a large swallow of sherry.
“But why do you act so distracted?”
“Have you ever wondered why I never married?” Lady Mary patted the settee, and Reggie abandoned Amanda’s lap and raced to the older woman. She pulled something small from her sleeve and fed it to the dog. “It was entirely by choice, I assure you. My father was quite a wealthy earl. His daughters were esteemed commodities.”
Amanda cocked her head. “Your father didn’t force the issue? Arrange a marriage?”
“He would have, had I left the matter up to him alone.” Lady Mary pinned Amanda with a look. “To most of society, status is all that matters. I learned very early on that what I thought or cared about was of little account to my father or the suitors he placed before me. Even my sister couldn’t understand my reluctance. Once she’d married Marcus’s father, she tried to throw me together with eligible gentleman. I swear, by the end, my family was hoping I’d be caught in an indelicate situation with a gentleman so we’d be forced to marry.”
“Then how did you remain unwed?” If an earl had wanted to marry his daughter off, her objections would have been of little account.
A small smile danced around the older woman’s lips. “A woman’s intelligence might not be a desirable trait to men, but her soundness of mind is. I learned to act in a manner that most gentlemen found unsuitable for the prospective mother of their sons. As my father never truly needed a marital alliance to improve his finances, he didn’t press the matter too greatly. Especially after my sister’s grand success in landing a duke. My father’s reputation could withstand a spinster daughter.”
“You don’t appear crazy.” Absent-minded and simple, yes. But Amanda had seen men marry much stupider and for much less incentive. “Not so as to scare men off an earl’s daughter.”
“You didn’t know me when I was of marriageable age.” She scratched Reggie under the chin. “I could put on quite a show,” she cooed to Reggie. “Yes, I could.” She straightened and resumed her normal voice. “I only tell you this because you’ve shown yourself as a woman with a brain in her head. Your letters to the editor are quite astute. And I don’t want you to be too hard on yourself, no matter what Lord Hanford says. We all have our ways of coping, dear. My father, bless his soul, thought all women were good for was to be wives and mothers. I rebelled by being so foolish that no man wanted me. I thumbed my nose at his narrow-minded view of women by remaining happily unwed.”
Lady Mary took a sip of her sherry. “And, of course, by taking many lovers.”
Amanda swallowed her sherry down the wrong pipe, and her body went into paroxysms of coughing.
“Are you all right, dear?” Lady Mary gave her a smile of old, vapid and sweet, and Amanda coughed harder. She nodded and held up a hand, asking for time to recover.
When her body calmed, she sagged back into her seat. Her new brother-in-law’s choice in chaperone was shockingly subversive. And absolutely marvelous. She wondered how much Marcus knew about his aunt. He was a man who didn’t seem to miss much. But who would suspect the spinster had a hidden life?
Amanda carefully took another sip of sherry.
“I haven’t seen your Lord Rothchild for a while.” Lady Mary picked up her needlepoint. “Has he left our company?”
“No.” Julius wouldn’t leave without telling Amanda. She was nearly certain. “He is kept busy with his duties in Parliament.”
“Will he champion your cause in the House of Lords?”
Amanda rolled her glass between her hands. “I don’t know.” Julius was busy with his own cause. He agreed with her stance, and if the reform law came up again, she was sure he would vote yea. But his duty lay in his intelligence work. She chewed on her lower lip. Julius was investigating Lord Hanford. Wouldhehave told the man of her fears? She didn’t want to believe it, but Julius was a determined man. If it would help to insinuate himself with Hanford …
Her heart squeezed. It shouldn’t matter whether Julius had spoken of her to Hanford or not. They had made no promises. Had made no pledges to the other.
But it did matter.
She stood. “I’m going to retire early. I’m not feeling well.”
Lady Mary blinked. “Before dinner?”
