Chapter Five
“Ahouse guest?A house guest?Possibly coming to stay—possibly?And you don’t know when, but it will be for an indefinite visit?”Marcus’s aunt, Lady Gosforth, snorted.“What sort of house guest arrives with virtually no warning and at an indeterminate time and for an indeterminate period?”She raised her lorgnette and glared at him.“It isnotconvenient.You realize I’ve only just arrived in London.”
“Yes, it was quite fortuitous,” Marcus agreed.
“Well, I wasn’t going to stay in the wilderness at Alverleigh when you so rudely abandoned me there.”
“As I said, your arrival is fortuitous.I forgot to ask earlier—did you have a pleasant journey?”
She snorted.“Don’t try that fiddle-faddle on me, boy—who is thispossible and indefinitehouse guest?”
“A young lady.”
Her eyes narrowed.“Do I know her?”
He strolled to the mantlepiece, picked up a small Tang horse and examined it.“I have no idea who you may or may not know, Aunt.Rather good, this horse, don’t you agree?Marvelous workmanship.”
“Marcus!”
He turned.“Yes, Aunt Maude?”
“What is the name of this possible house guest?”
“Lady Hewitt.”
“Lady Hewitt?Lady Hewitt?”She pondered the name for a minute.“I don’t know any Lady Hew—oh good God!You cannot mean the Ice Widow?”
“I believe that’s what some people—in their ignorance—call her,” Marcus said coldly.
“In their ignorance?Ignorance!”his aunt snapped.“You are the ignorant one!Don’t you realize that, that”—she struggled a moment, searching for an acceptable word—“thatcreaturehas made a career out of entrapping foolish old men in marriage, men who, if my sources are correct, were wealthy at the time of the marriage but who died virtually penniless!I won’t have her in my house!I won’t, Marcus, and you can’t make me.”
“No, of course I won’t,” he said mildly.“Just let me know where you will be staying.”
She stared at him, then said ominously, “What do you mean, ‘where I will be staying’?”
He shrugged.“This is, after all,myhouse, and since you refuse to share it with Lady Hewitt, I presume you will wish to find alternative accommodation.”
She huffed and puffed.“Alternative accommodation?How dare you!I am your aunt!”
“Yes, Aunt Maude.And while I would be very grateful if you would reconsider, and agree to play hostess to Lady Hewitt, if you truly feel you cannot, I wouldn’t dream of forcing you.”
“No, you’ll just push me into the gutter!”his aunt said bitterly.
Marcus hid a smile.His aunt had several excellent options, including an elegant house in Bath and a small but equally elegant London house in Mount Street, but after his father died, she’d let the house in Mount Street, preferring to stay, when visiting London, in Alverleigh House, his much grander and more convenient house in Grosvenor Square.And declared he needed a hostess.“Hardly the gutter, Aunt Maude.But it’s your choice.”
She hurrumphed and glared at him for a while.He rang for tea and waited for her to simmer down.She was short-tempered but her tempests never lasted long.
The butler brought tea, a plate of small, iced cakes and a variety of biscuits.After she’d drunk some tea and eaten several cakes, his aunt set her tea cup aside.“Explain to me why you wish me to play hostess to this notorious widow.How did you meet her?”
“I’ve known her since we were children.She grew up at Ferndale, the estate next to Alverleigh.”He didn’t want to reveal that as an adult, he’d met her on only three short occasions.
