Jamie colored.Ladies weren’t supposed to acknowledge gentlemen’s pursuits, at least not the kind Jamie indulged in while on leave from his regiment.
Georgiana regretted making him uncomfortable.He was two years younger than Richard and Andrew.When they were boys, Georgiana felt protective of Richard’s friends.Still, if she weakened now, she wouldn’t be able to find out what her devious brother was up to.Jamie was no longer a boy; he was thirty-one.
She pressed on.“You had other friends to see I imagine, the inseparable four from Harrow—Richard, Jamie, Will Landrum, and Andrew.”Her voice trailed off suggestively.“What did you call yourselves?The Cohort, wasn’t it?”
Jamie grinned.“That was it.Andrew wanted ‘The Phalanx of Thermopylae,’ but Richard told him it was too damned obscure for the teachers to understand.”He colored at his own language.“Sorry, Lady Georgie.”He quickly went on.
“Andrew didn’t come home from the Peninsula that year.Too busy.Will was there though.His father was ill.Went home and came back sorry.Knew he was going to have to sell out.Never saw him as drunk as he was when?—”
“Will Landrum?Never say it.”Georgiana’s brows rose.
“Ok.I won’t say it.”Mischief in his face hinted at the old Jamie.“Not always a saint, our Will.Ask Glenaire.”
“Tell me again, Jamie.How did you find my home?”
“Glenaire gave me your direction.Told him I’d pop round to visit.”Jamie delivered lies and half-truths as well as any man, but this one made him squirm.Richard sent him.
Georgiana’s gray-blue eyes crinkled at the corners.“He didn’t mention it to my parents, I’ll warrant.They think Helsington is locked up like a convent.”
He flashed a relieved smile at her humor.“Goes to prove they don’t know you.Never did.”
She attempted to look reproachful, but her mouth quirked into a smile.
“It isn’t at all the thing to say, Lady Georgie, but you look peaky.Are you well?”His statement took her off guard.
That’s it then?He’s inquiring after my health?Richard already knew about her health.She waved her hand in the air vaguely.“It is just an ill humor.I’m not as robust as I used to be.”She sipped her sherry.
No more opportunities to probe arose over dinner, but she continued to tease his palate with first one wine and then another.He took the bait willingly enough when she invited him to take port in her sitting room.
It took only one glass to give her the opening she needed.
“Your sitting room is full of paper, Lady Georgie.Notwhat a man expects in a lady’s parlor.What is it for?”
“You are looking at my work.”
“Work?I thought you ladies did embroidery or painted or some such things.Never say you write.”
“Not write.Translate, or try to.The works I find are in ancient Greek.”
“Translate?That’s what Andr—another friend of mine wishes to do.Can’t see it myself.Don’t tell me a lady can translate also.”Jamie’s forehead wrinkled as though he tried to remember something.She hoped his brain, fogged with drink, refused to cooperate.
“I am afraid I lack your superior education, but I try,” Georgiana said with a carefully controlled self-deprecating smile.
“If you think my education is superior, you must have been sadly neglected.”He shook his head and held his glass for a refill.
“Actually, Jamie, I want to employ a tutor or an assistant.You did your time at Cambridge.Would you know anyone who might accept a woman for a student?”She didn’t sound as neutral as she planned.She was sure her anxiety about the answer must have been obvious, even to Jamie.
“I am long and happily gone from this place, Lady Georgie, and wouldn’t know.Notmuch of a scholar.”Jamie looked like a man who realized he had backed into a trap.His voice suddenly sounded more sober than she thought possible.“Can’t help you there,” he said.
She forced a laugh.“What a joy you are, Jamie!Don’t worry.I won’t make you state the obvious.No Fellow would dare endanger his reputation on a female dilettante.”
“Didn’t mean an insult, Lady Georgie.No offense intended at all,” he said, flustered.
“No offense taken.”She sipped her port, encouraging him to drink more deeply before she pounced.“Jamie, Andrew Mallet excelled at Greek, didn’t he?”She kept her tone casual, but it put Jamie on alert.She swore his ears twitched.“Have you seen him recently?Is he well?”
“Not, notrecently...that is, no.If you’re asking if he is a scholar”—Jamie swallowed convulsively— “he, well, of course, he was the best.He is long from his studies, though.He doesn’t need to take up a profession.”
He rattled on to cover the obvious lie.“Was wounded badly at Waterloo.Mad saber-waving charge.Took out four blasted frog cannoneers at their gun.Explosion, shrapnel hit, horse fell on him.Terrible thing.Shouldn’t have been with the Dragoons.”
