Evangeline gave it up. She liked blue. And before she could stop herself, she wrote a reply to the brief note from Mrs. Hutchins, enclosed with the sketch, expressing her approval. She gave it to Solly and asked her to include measurements, knowing her companion would also mention the color.
And her eagerness certainly wasn’t due at all to the thought of what Richard might think of her in a truly flattering gown.
Chapter 18
Now that he had taken residence near London, Clemency began suggesting he join a club.
Richard had little interest in this. He’d seen how Englishmen carried on, away from ladies, and he found it ridiculous and frankly disappointing. They wagered immense sums of money on trivial things, when he and Gerhard had staked their very lives. They argued politics past the point of all reason, even when they agreed. They drank constantly, which mainly led them to behave like fools and idiots. And they gossiped worse than any women Richard had ever known.
“But it’s the thing to do!” Clemency protested.
“You must know by now that I am not good at doing what is expected.”
“You don’t even know what you are refusing,” she said crossly. “Have you ever been to a club?”
“Yes, I have been. I have dined at one and played cards at another.”
Her mouth opened in a round O. “When?”
He turned and raised his voice. “Gerhard! To which club did Sir Harold Stephenson belong?”
“Watier’s,” said his friend from the desk by the window, where he was writing a letter.
“And Captain Bucking?”
Gerhard paused, thinking. “Brooks’s, I believe. Far worse dinner fare.”
Richard turned back to his sister. “And I did not care for either of them.”
“There are others! Daniel was a member at White’s, and I suppose Rafael will put his name down there as well.”
He raised his brows. “Have you ever been to one of these clubs?”
She flushed. “Of course not. They are for gentlemen, not for ladies.”
“You have missed nothing,” he told her, “and I am content to miss them as well.”
“What else will you do with your time?” she pestered. “Since you have taken a house, I presume you mean to stay.”
He did. But he did not want to tell his sister so, partly because she was trying to manage him and he didn’t want to reward that, and partly because he didn’t want to tell her it was only somewhat due to her and her sons. And perhaps she had a point. He had already vowed not to make a nuisance of himself to Evangeline, for fear of giving her a disgust of him. Perhaps he ought to find something else to occupy his time. He had no need to work; he had an inheritance from his family that kept a single gentleman—who had no estate, wife, or children to support—in good comfort. But neither was he interested in another adventure now.
“I will find something,” he told her vaguely. “Perhaps I will take up watercolors.”
She sat with the frustrated look on her face that told him the battle had been paused, not ended, and certainly not decided. He returned to his book, but with only half attention.
Sure enough, she couldn’t hold herself back for very long. “I took tea with Lady Allen at Mrs. Fitzwilliam’s the other day,” she burst out, “and she told me Lord Allen would give his team of grays if you would attend his club with him!”
Richard paused. Allen... “Henry Allen? We attended a ball at his home once.”
His sister brightened. “We did! Years and years ago, but both Lord and Lady Allen remember it well. You left a lasting impression upon them.”
As had Allen, on Richard. He’d wanted Evangeline’s name and direction from Allen, and the man had refused to give it.
Gerhard’s chair creaked as he rose from his chair and came to sit on the sofa across from Richard. His eyes gleamed with mischief though his expression was calm. “Surely you remember, Richard. I certainly do. It was only a few nights before we left for Copenhagen, in the year Twelve. It was a benefit ball. I remember it because?—”
“Very well,” interrupted Richard, sensing Gerhard was about to remark that Richard had left that ball early and not come home until late the next morning, looking rumpled and dissolute. “If Lord Allen wishes to have me to dine with him at his club, I suppose I shall say yes, since we are prior acquaintances.” He didn’t have fond memories of the man, but he also didn’t want his sister to know he’d left her at a ball so he could make love to a woman he’d just met.
Clemency gave a happy chirp and clapped her hands. “I will mention it to Lady Allen! Oh, she will be so pleased.”
