“And now you wonder why.”
“Not at all. If you choose to call on my wife when I am not at home, that is fine with me.”
“It isn’t as if he thinks you have designs on her,” Langford said from the other side. “He’d never suspect that, would you, Stratton?”
“Of course not.”
“I think she did tell you why I called. What did she say?”
Stratton shrugged. “She only said it had to do with the journal. Hence my thanking you for letting society know your high esteem again.”
Eric debated whether to leave it at that. Eventually, the problem with Miss MacCallum was going to get out, however. If the king’s Household knew, eventually the world might. Who knew if Hume would be discreet. Probably not, if he saw some profit in talking.
“It did concern the journal. However, it also concerned Miss MacCallum.”
“I told you,” Langford said triumphantly to Stratton. “As soon as you said the journal, I thought,and who writes for that journal?Hmmm? I told you he has a fascination.”
Eric chose to ignore Langford. The alternative was to thrash him and, tempting though that might be, they were in the middle of the park and he loathed creating a scene. “There is no fascination. There is no interest. There is only annoyance and a good deal of pique. Not only with her but with your wife, Stratton.”
“I trust you did not call on Clara to scold her. I won’t have it.”
“Hell, no one scolds Clara. Even you don’t, nor would any man who wants to live five more minutes. I merely called on her to ask a favor. And she graciously granted it.”
That stopped the two of them in their tracks. He rode on. A patter of hooves brought them to his two flanks again.
“What favor?” It was Langford who had the cheek to ask. “You have told us this much, you may as well tell the rest. Clara may never confide in Stratton, but Amanda will surely tell me if I work my wiles on her.”
“I have no reason to think Amanda knows about this.”
“Of course she does. Or she will. She said all they do at that club is gossip. They are worse than men, according to her.”
Knowing how successfully Langford worked his wiles, that meant Amanda would indeed tell him if he was determined to find out.
“Miss MacCallum has come to London to petition to have lands returned to her that she claims were confiscated several generations ago and given to someone else. That is her true reason for being here, not to write forParnassusand not to serve as a tutor.”
Langford’s brow knit. “So who has the lands now?” He glanced askance at Eric. “Ohhhh.”
“She had a meeting at St. James’s a few days ago. As did I. The king has been avoiding her, but that became impossible becausesomeone’s wifeinterfered and wrote to the king on her behalf.” He glared at Stratton.
“Not much interference,” Stratton said defensively. “The king does not like Clara.”
“He could not ignore a duchess, though, could he? He had Haversham speak with her. And with me.”
Stratton reddened. “You had the temerity to meet with Clara and ask her to stopinterfering?”
“I asked her to allow matters to resolve themselves. I asked her not to publish anything about this in that damned journal of hers. That is why the king agreed to have Miss MacCallum be heard out. He knows about that journal, and your wife’s patronage of it, and he probably imagined being shown as a liar in it.”
“A liar?” Once more, Langford could not allow anything to pass. How like him.
“There had been a promise a few years ago. I was very thankful Clara indeed said she would not publish anything.”
“That is not like her,” Stratton said. “She must like you more than I realized. I always thought that she and you—”
“Yes, yes. Well, I sweetened the favor a little. She gets the whole story if there is ever one to tell.”
“I trust you included the provision that Lady Farnsworth would not be the one to write that story,” Langford said. “Because even if you are in the right, she can make you look like an ass.”
“Still bitter about that, are you, Langford? Since the lady all but adopted your wife, you should probably let that water flow under the bridge.”
