“He received an invitation yesterday,” Chase said. “He mentioned it in a message I received before you came down. But, being Kevin, he neglected to mention if he had accepted it.”
“Things have been going well between the two of you, Miss Jameson?” the duke asked. “I only ask because the others we can quell easily enough, but Kevin has a way of speaking his mind too frankly at times.”
“He is saying he can be rude,” Minerva said. “But you know that already.”
“I believe we have a friendship of sorts. He has helped me as I settle in here in Town.”
That reassured the duke. “I say, Chase, if Kevin will be there as a friend of Miss Jameson, we might find ourselves protecting the relatives fromhim, instead of protecting her from the family.”
“It would be like him to draw their fire,” Chase said.
“What an interesting development,” Minerva said. “This may be an almost enjoyable evening instead of the utter disaster I had anticipated.”
* * *
Kevin entered the drawing room. For a moment, the chamber silenced as curious eyes looked to see who had arrived. Then conversation started up again. Two of his cousins’ wives showed disappointment.Oh, it’s just you, their expressions said.
Everyone had come, at least the ones who ever attended any family event. His own father had not bothered, nor his father’s brothers, most of whom lived in the country and rarely came up to Town. But his cousins had graced Aunt Agnes with their attendance, all of them wearing their privilege and position as obviously as ever.
The family members who thought they should have received the money that Miss Jameson inherited were here to take a good look at the thief who had deprived them of their long-awaited expectations.
Aunt Agnes and Aunt Dolores were in an animated tête-à-tête on the divan. Agnes saw him and gestured for him to join them.
“We’ve a disagreement.” She sighed, as if arguing with her sister were something unusual. “When we line up to go below to dinner, we are in conflict over where Miss Jameson should be put.”
“I say she is the guest of honor and receives some precedence for that,” Dolores said. “Agnes insists she be at the end of the line of females.”
“She has no social standing, nor the birth to place her anywhere at all,” Agnes said.
“Did you in any way indicate to her that she was the guest of honor?” Kevin asked. “We all know why you are hosting this dinner, and we all know that she is the victim du jour, but that is not the same thing.”
“I did not write toherthat she was the guest of honor.”
“You did to the others,” Dolores said. “You may not have used that phrase, but you made it clear that this dinner was an opportunity to meet this Miss Jameson.”
“Sister, truly, you can be such a trial. I think you disagree because it gives you perverse pleasure. As Kevin says, that is not the same thing. She will be last, as is appropriate.”
Dolores shrugged. “I am sure she won’t know the difference, so I’ll not belabor my view of it. What would such a woman know about order of precedence anyway?”
Nothing, Kevin thought. Not yet. Some day, however, Mrs. Markland would explain all that. Tonight, however, Rosamund would be ignorant of any slights. And he, Kevin, would walk beside her, with Chase and Minerva right ahead. Protection on all sides, then, except behind her, where Cousin Philip would be making a nuisance of himself.
As if called forth by his thoughts, Philip approached. The youngest of the cousins and, everyone agreed, the least promising among them, Philip sported a new waistcoat with gold buttons and bold green and yellow stripes. His frock coat looked new too, and the latest fashion, one which Kevin disliked because the snug sleeves constricted movement too much.
“So where is this Miss Jameson?” Philip asked loudly enough for Walter, the eldest of the cousins, to hear from his nearby perch on a chair. Philip’s soft face arranged itself into a comical pretense of curiosity. “A milliner, I hear. Uncle must have been going mad, after all, to leave all that to a woman who makes hats.”
“How much better to leave it to you, of course. Only it would be gone already if he had, so at least this way it might be useful for a while longer.” Kevin gestured to Philip’s chest. “Interesting waistcoat.”
Philip preened. “Harrington’s.”
Kevin detested people who told you where they purchased their luxuries. Philip did so all the time, as if expensive garments made him a worthwhile man.
“I suppose that means you have had luck at the tables recently.”
Philip blinked hard. “Of course.”
Hardlyof course. If ever a young man had bad luck when gambling, it was Philip. He took after his father that way, as he did in his spendthrift habits and lack of fiscal common sense. He’d gotten in deep with money lenders last autumn, and only God’s grace had spared him a hard lesson. That and the suspicious disappearance of a rare Renaissance sculpture from Whiteford House. Chase had tracked down that small bronze, and the description of the person who had sold it bore a strong resemblance to their youngest cousin.
Nicholas had chosen to ignore the theft and not confront Philip, but this particular cousin no longer had free access to the duke’s house. Or any family member’s residence, for that matter.
