When the man had gone, Geoffrey turned to his mother, who had seated herself upon the gold velvet sofa.
“What can you tell me of the Chimes family, and why do they hate us?”
He had her attention at the mention of the family’s name.
“Hate us?” She sniffed, then sighed and looked at her nails, plainly stalling.
“Yes, you know them. I can see that.”
“Don’t tell me the frightful Lady Chimes has come back from Bath and brought her handsome, beleaguered husband with her? It was so pleasant knowing that family was on the other side of England. I suppose she made a scene. She is the lowest mushroom I can imagine. I don’t know how Lord Chimes puts up with her.”
Geoffrey narrowed his eyes. And then, thinking of his mother’s wild youth, considered the most sought-after young lady at the turn of the century, a favorite at King George’s court, he could guess she was involved.
“What didyoudo to them?” he asked.
“Me?” She was all blue-eyed innocence.
“Yes, you.” He took a seat, determined to hear thewhysand thehowsof it.
“Why does everyone always think I am responsible when things go badly? Your father used to say I caused those three big stones to fall over at Stonehenge.”
“No, Mother, that was due to frost and happened a long time ago. More recently, if you recall, you caused Lord Spiren to leave Lady Spiren.”
Her nostrils flared. “It was not my fault the man became entirely besotted with me.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not.” His mother was an unconscionable flirt.
“You are my son, and I will not be interrogated by you,” Lady Diamond declared.
After the chocolate and coffee were served, Geoffrey tried again. “I only want to know why Lady Chimes wouldn’t accept a simple introduction from me. Although come to think of it, she said Father had no honor, not you.”
Instead of being bothered by a slight against her husband, his mother shrugged.
“Coming from a mushroom,” she muttered.
“An attractive one,” he said, trying to learn the truth, all fiery hair and green eyes like her beautiful daughter. “Did Father love her very much?”
“Pish,”his mother said, and the story came from her lips like water from a fountain. “It’s the other way around. Lord Chimes adored me, but your father enticed me away from him. She’s simply annoyed at being chosen second. She knows if her husband could have had me, she would have ended up some obscure baronet’s wife, or worse, instead of a countess.”
Geoffrey stirred his coffee. “Are you telling me on behalf of her jealous husband, she considersmyfather dishonorable? That’s unlikely. After all, Lord Chimes’s loss of you was her gain.”
His mother sipped her chocolate. “There may have been something else.”
“May have been?” Geoffrey prompted.
“Your fathermayhave placed a wager with Lord Chimes and against all odds won, thereby draining the other man’s coffers a little. I don’t think the money mattered. It was the issue of the wager, which I never did suss out.”
Geoffrey sighed. His mother liked to dance and batt her eyelashes and sing, too, whenever asked, and his father liked to laugh and occasionally to gamble. Mostly, they were both harmless since his mother never took her flirtation too far, and his father usually came out on top.But, still!
“Anyway,” his mother asked, “why do you care if you are introduced to Lady Chimes? She’s a bit long in the tooth for you, dear son of mine.” Her familiar, ready laughter erupted.
He didn’t feel like laughing.
“I wanted to dance with her daughter.”
Lady Diamond perked up. “Don’t even think it.”
“Mother, you don’t know the Chimes’s daughter.”
