“Well, perhaps she is perfect, to your father.”
“I don’t think it’s her character he admires, it’s something else entirely. Aunt Deveraux whispered to me at their wedding, at the top of her lungs, that Averil is a seductress and she undoubtedly stuck out her—goodness, I can’t say that to a strange man, to any man for that matter, even my brother, Bryant—so I’ll be circumspect and say she stuck her upper parts in his face and Papa was a goner. He never used to retire for the night as early as he does now.
“I do try to be nice to her since Papa is so happy, but it is difficult. Look, here comes my papa walking with another gentleman, but I can’t really see who it is because of their umbrellas.”
“Would you like to meet the gentleman with your father? He’s my guardian.”
“Oh dear, I’ve let my tongue run on greased wheels and I don’t know why you’re here in England and not in Kiev and have an ever-so-romantic name. And a guardian.” As she spoke, she rose to stand beside him and he wasn’t surprised she came to his nose. He wouldn’t get a crick in his neck waltzing with her. Strange thought. He held the umbrella over both of them.
She cocked her head at him, shoved up her glasses again. He wasn’t particularly surprised when Camilla—Cam—looked at him up and down and observed, “Since you appear to have no obvious nasty habits, I imagine you are very popular at all the balls and soirees. You really are remarkably handsome and blessedly tall, but then again, maybe you’re the repellent sort who kicks his dog, or you have other nasty habits.”
Alex smiled, nothing else to do. “No, my dogs always slept with me, pushed me to the edge of the bed. What is an obvious nasty habit? You mean like some of Pilcher’s shortcomings?”
She shuddered. “Nothing could be as repulsive as Pilcher’s bad habits. Let me see—there is smoking those nasty cigarsthat make your breath smell like soiled sheets. You have very nice breath so smoking isn’t a bad habit.”
He stared at her, mesmerized. “Very true. What else?”
“Belching at the dinner table.”
“Don’t ladies belch occasionally?”
“If a lady belched in company, she’d be exiled to America to cook whale blubber.”
Alex spurted out a laugh. “That sounds very severe.” He wanted her to keep listing nasty habits, but she said, “Even if you were a heathen and had nasty habits, I doubt it would matter.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re a treat to the eyes, that’s why, as I already told you—as if you didn’t know. If you’re to be considered good husband material, however, you must have at least a smidgeon of blue blood and a goodly number of groats in your pockets.” She paused a moment. “For ladies, I’ve learned it’s what’s on the outside that really counts. If a lady has both groats and a lovely face she can attach a duke, but he just might be doddering with no teeth. I’m also told a lady must make a gentleman feel like a god. Can you imagine?”
He slowly shook his head. “I can’t imagine. Come along and let me introduce you to my guardian.”
“That would be lovely. And you’ll meet my father. Isn’t he fine-looking? Tall and straight, no paunch for him. Is he more fine-looking than your guardian? I really can’t tell yet.”
“My guardian could charm the socks off a monkey.”
She burst into laughter.
The sun sailed out from behind a cloud at that moment.
CHAPTER 5
Ryder Sherbrooke looked up to see Alex walking beside a tall young lady he’d never seen before. And here he’d left Alex sitting comfortably on a bench but an hour before, by himself. He shook his head, Sophie wouldn’t be surprised. She’d told him most every young unmarried girl in Upper Slaughter was in love with Alex. When Ryder had laughed, she told him so far Alex had received twelve pairs of knitted socks and so many hand-embroidered handkerchiefs with his initials he’d had to pile them on the top of his clothes’ chest at the foot of his bed. And all the children made great sport, teasing him mercilessly.
Ryder was only half listening to his friend, Harold Augustus Rohman, Lord Whitsonby, Whit to his friends, his blue blood mixing nicely with his business acumen. He was blissfully remarried to a remarkably pretty lady, so Ryder had heard, and much younger than he was. Whit stopped in his diatribe on the influence of Lord Melbourne over the young queen, sighed when he recognized the lady striding beside a strange man coming toward them, shook his head, said, his voice philosophical, “Ah, here comes my youngest daughter, Camilla. I must admit to you I’m not surprised she’s here andnot on her way to Bath.” Whit sighed. “She’s here to talk me around to her side, something she’s quite good at. I tried to tell Averil she wouldn’t go, but go she must, according to my wife, for her sister’s sake, and why was that I wondered. Forgive me for airing personal matters. Ah, I wonder who that young man is. A tall chap, handsome I suppose, well dressed, looks like a young gentleman. I don’t believe I’ve ever met him before. At least Henry is close, ready to attack if the young man becomes forward, not that my daughter would need his assistance. Cam smacked young Teddy Jewel’s nose, giving him a nosebleed. He was newly down from Oxford and feeling his oats and the idiot tried to pull her behind a statue in the garden.” He sighed again. “She is so very friendly, you see, and some gentlemen can easily form the wrong impression. Her mother—ah, stepmother—despairs of her, tells me Camilla will be lucky to attach a clerk in the city if she doesn’t learn to shut her mouth and become more pleasant to look at, like her sister, Eliza. Myself, I think Cam looks like her mother, my glorious Tansia, a beauty to her bones, she was, but of course I can’t very well say that to my bride. I can but hope my Averil will come to appreciate my remarkably smart daughter. But oil and water, that’s what they are and I don’t know which is which.” And Whit shrugged elegant shoulders, laughed. “Not that it matters. Ladies are an enigma and will remain so, I doubt not, for the next millennia and beyond. Maybe forever.”
Ryder said, “I’m pleased to inform you there is no need to worry about the young man with your daughter, Whit. He is my ward, Alex Ivanov, the young gentleman I mentioned to you who excels in improving existing mechanical technology, trains his main interest. You’ll find him very well behaved and very smart.”
Whit looked thoughtful. “You also said he has amazing financial intuition. What do you mean exactly?”
“Alex has the ability to determine if a proposed project isviable and if it has a good chance to be profitable. He is able to calculate costs remarkably well. Like you, as I said, he is very interested in trains and improving the working parts, making them safer and more efficient. He recognized them as our future when he was only a lad and newly arrived on our shores.” It was enough. Ryder had primed the pump, Whit was hooked.
Whit never took his eyes off his approaching daughter. “You said his parents sent him to you from Ukraine during their revolution. So many uprisings in that part of the world, one cannot keep up. Ah, too much heated blood, unlike the English, a steady bunch, hot-blooded only in the bedroom and on the battlefield. A pity his parents didn’t survive. However did you meet them?”
Ryder said smoothly, “I met Nicola and Maria Ivanov in Paris after Waterloo. It was my pleasure to welcome their only son into my home. It was good for him to be around all my other children at Brandon House as he was grieving and lonely when he arrived in England.” He knew Whit was too polite to ask if his parents had sent funds with him.
Whit said, “I’d forgotten your penchant for picking up st—er, abandoned children. An excellent thing, of course, albeit rather odd. Naturally, you are to be commended.”
Of course Ryder was commended and not derided since he was, after all, the Honorable Ryder Sherbrooke, an earl’s second son, brother of the current Earl of Northcliffe, a very powerful gentleman in the government and in Society. He imagined Whit wanted to know if Alex had picked up criminal bad habits from the orphans in his care, but he said only, “With his permission, we changed his name from Alexi Ivanov to Alex Ivanov. In any case, Alex gives me great pleasure as he does all the children. As I mentioned to you, he is not only an amiable young man, and his love of trains is, of course, one of your passions. He is also well on his way tobecoming rich with his financial investments.” Had he primed the pump too much?
