“True, and you don’t either. Only think how she could exact revenge upon her parents’ behalf. She might lead you on simply to break your heart. Or worse, lead you down the garden path to ensure a proposal. The idea of being linked through marriage to Lord and Lady Chimes is absolutely out of the question.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” he said, thinking again how lovely Lady Caroline was and how sweet her lips.
“Notyou! Us!” she said. “Your father and I could hardly invite them over for supper, could we? It would be excruciating.”
“Liable to end in a duel if you behaved as your normal self,” Geoffrey suggested.
“Preposterous,” his mother said. Then added, “But entirely likely. Thus, the answer is no, no, no!”
“I wasn’t asking your permission,” Geoffrey reminded her. He would dance with, kiss, and marry whomever he damn well pleased.
His mother rolled her eyes. “Never mind. I don’t need to do anything to stop this carriage wreck. Lord and Lady Chimes won’t let you within a furlong of their precious daughter. Mark my words.”
“Why won’t you tellme?” Caroline demanded of her mother as soon as the ball ended, and they were in their carriage, on the way home to Upper Brook Street near Grosvenor Gate. Her parents had purchased the residence upon returning from fifteen years in Bath.
Her mother had refused to speak of the Diamonds at all. But her aunt raised a single perfectly auburn eyebrow, andCaroline knew she would find her answers the following day.
Thus, taking her maid, Caroline went directly to the home of her mother’s sister at the polite hour of two o’clock. If they hadn’t been out late at the ball, then she might have gone at regular visiting hours, beginning at eleven, but she knew Aunt Cordelia wouldn’t have yet awakened.
As it was, her aunt, while still wearing her dressing gown and house slippers, invited Caroline upstairs to her bedchamber.
“We’ll take tea in here,” Cordelia told her maid, and they sat on the soft, blue velvet chairs by her aunt’s window overlooking Berkeley Square. “You want to know about that dash-fire, Diamond, don’t you?”
Caroline smiled. “Yes!”
“What a family!” her aunt exclaimed.
“Tell me,” Caroline insisted.
“His mother was a stunner. She still is, I would warrant, although I haven’t seen her in ages. She caught your father’s eye, along with every man’s, in her first year out in society. My sister saw it all. You know she loved your father at first sight but was too shy to tell him.”
“My mother ... shy?” Caroline mused.
“You become more of a tiger with age, dear girl, especially after having children. You and your two brothers are her whole life. And your father’s, too, of course.”
Caroline contemplated her mother as a young, unsure woman. It was hard to do.
“So, Father fell for Lady Diamond —”
“Beforeshe was Lady Diamond,” her aunt reminded her. “It was anyone’s guess whose lady she would become. I believe for a little while, your father thought she would becomehisLady Chimes. And then Diamond decided he wanted her for himself. I believe he secured her by compromising her. A little scandal brewed, and then suddenly, they had announced their engagement.”
“Really!” Caroline’s imagination took flight. After having gazed into the younger Diamond’s blue eyes, she could well believe he might get her into a compromising situation with a crook of his finger.
On the other hand, what if it had been a forced marriage?“Maybe Lady Diamond really lovedmyfather but had to marry Lord Diamond,” Caroline considered.
Her aunt wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I think she knew exactly what she was doing and whom she wanted. In any case, with her out of the way, your father noticed your mother. And that, as they say, was that.”
“And my mother disapproves of Lord Diamond because of his rakish behavior with Lady Diamond?” Caroline asked. “That seems absurd, considering he cleared the way for Father to be with Mother.”
“I think my dear sister states that she dislikes Lord Diamond but is actually still a bit green at the gills overLadyDiamond, although she shouldn’t be. Your father was absolutely besotted with your mother from their first dance, and he’s been a devoted husband ever since.”
“I know,” Caroline agreed with a nod. “I’ve seen evidence of their love many times over the years. Just the way they look at one another.”
“Precisely,” her aunt said.
“And does Father dislike the Diamonds, too?”
Aunt Cordelia sipped her tea. “Lord Diamond and your father both belong to White’s. There was a wager. Diamond won.”
