“Lady Posy is quite safe from me.”
“Who, then?”
“Lady Felicity Brightley.”
“Westerley’s betrothed?”
“Formerbetrothed.”
“That’s right.” Cordelia twisted her mouth into a familiar expression. Familiar because he recognized it from his own reflection. “I do hope she didn’t agree only because Westerley jilted—”
“She did not.” And since Felicity, herself, had resorted to claiming a love match for her parents' sake, Mantis added, “We’ve been in love for some time. Now that she’s free, we wish to marry as soon as possible. Banns will be read beginning this Sunday.”
Cordelia, of course, couldn’t take his explanation at face value, and her expression held more than a trace of suspicion.
“You never mentioned her before.”
“Of course I didn’t. She was betrothed to one of my best friends.” Handy explanation, really. And it made all of this so much easier.
Louisa appeared almost magically from the door to the servant’s staircase.
“What a special treat this is. Let’s go inside, shall we? Your father came down ten minutes ago.”
She took a great deal of pride in managing the household going’s on and would have, no doubt, wished to ensure breakfast was served precisely as his father liked it.
“Good morning, Louisa,” Cordelia nodded. “After you.”
Crestwood was already seated at the head of the table, his newspaper opened, an empty cup of tea at his elbow. Connor rarely took a meal with adults and would already be well into his studies in the nursery.
Cordelia and Louisa each took up a plate to fill at the sideboard. Mantis bided himself just inside the door, waiting for the ladies to be seated before finding his own.
“To what do we owe the honor of your presence, Manningham?”
Mantis supposed he ought to consider himself lucky his father acknowledged him at all.
He met Cordelia’s gaze and then flicked it back to the one man in his life that he’d not once presumed to impress.
“The occasion of my pending nuptials. Lady Felicity Brightley has consented to become my wife in a little over three weeks.”
The shattering of glass had everyone turning toward the sideboard where Louisa stood amongst the ruins of broken porcelain, eggs, toast, and jam. Mantis wasn’t sure if her look of shock was from his announcement or the fact that she’d just broken a piece of two-hundred-year-old dishware.
“Take care of it,” the earl snapped at the footmen, who’d frozen at the commotion. An uncomfortable silence settled in the room until both Cordelia and his father’s wife were seated at the table.
Mantis remained standing.
“We received an invitation to dine with Lord and Lady Brightley just this morning. I imagine that’s what this is about,” Louisa offered before taking a delicate bite.
“How’d you manage to land such a piece as Brightley’s chit? Knock her up?”
Mantis stiffened but remained impassive.
“We’ve held an affection for one another for some time now. Now that Lady Felicity is free, she’s agreed to become my wife.”
“So, she is not simply a friend,” Louisa smiled. “How wonderful.”
“When is this dinner?” His father cut in.
“Tomorrow evening.” Louisa provided.
