“At least she is not lecturingme.”
Lady Devonshire had wandered off somewhere but now returned and said, “Would you ladies like to see the new paintings?”
“Are they scandalous?” asked Adele.
“One is a female nude,” said Louisa.
“Then yes, please, my lady,” said Grace. “Show us the paintings.”
* * *
At the club a few nights later, Fletcher told his friends, “I called on Rotherfeld today and he invited me to luncheon.”
“And you broke bread with him?” asked Lark, looking horrified.
“I am trying to follow Owen’s advice, which was to befriend Rotherfeld so that he knows he can trust me in the company of his future wife.”
Lark wrinkled his nose as if he found this whole business distasteful.
“Do you take issue with Rotherfeld?” Fletcher asked Lark.
“Not as such, I just find him rather dull.”
“I’m right, am I not?” Owen said, mostly to Hugh. “Rotherfeld’s instinct will be to prevent his wife from spending time with her unmarried male friend, but if Rotherfeld understands that Fletcher’s intentions are brotherly, then he may allow their friendship to continue.”
“I would trust my wife in the company of any one of you,” Hugh said.
“Precisely,” said Owen.
“But I have known you all since we were boys,” said Hugh. “Fletcher is unlikely to engender that kind of trust in, what, a month?”
“Let us talk about everyone else’s problems!” Fletcher said, probably too loudly. He was tired of going in circles about this.
Owen laughed. “Well. Since you arenotin love with Lady Louisa—”
“I am not!”
“—we’ll let it slide this time. And I don’t have any problems.”
“Of course you don’t,” said Hugh, laughing.
“What can I say? Life is good. Dafydd is very close to saying his first word.” Dafydd was Owen’s son, who was just over a year old. “He’s been sayingmmma lot lately, which I think means he’s about to sayMama. I’d feel insulted, but since Grace is also my favorite person, I’ll allow him to bestow the honor upon her first. And he’s terrorizing our nanny now that he’s on foot, but I find that entertaining more than anything else.”
“Children are small terrors,” Hugh said. “My Edward is a chatterbox. Never stops talking and most of it is nonsense. Adele seems charmed by it, though. And she has been making noise about having another, but I am yet to be convinced. She was so ill with Edward.”
“Women forget,” said Owen. “Apparently it’s nature’s way of tricking them into having more children. That is, according to a book Grace made me read.”
“Perhaps we are not the best judges of what women are capable of,” Fletcher said.
“Probably true,” said Owen.
“What is happening in Parliament?” Lark asked Owen, seeming eager to change the subject.
“Not much. It’s not officially in session, but Lords are in a lather about that assassination attempt on Wellington, and the only real bill on the horizon right now is one to build more churches, a cause about which I have no feelings one way or the other.”
“This is what our government is spending its time on?” asked Fletcher. “Churches?”
“Take it up with the Prince Regent.”
