Danielle’s eyes rounded. “Oh, dear. Now I know somethingiswrong,” she replied. She gave a quick glance in a framed mirror near the front door, adjusting the hat so it sat at more of an angle before she pulled out and slid its hat pin into place. “Whatever are you doing in London?”
“I’ll explain everything after we’re outside,” Andrew said, holding the door for her.
Glancing back into the hall, thinking she should tell someone she was leaving the house, Danielle instead accepted Andrew’s offer of an arm and they took their leave of Norwick House.
“How did you get here?” Danielle asked, when she noticed the lack of equipage in front of Norwick House.
“I walked,” he replied. “I’ve spent most of the morning in the traveling coach—we left Cambridge before dawn—and I needed to stretch my legs.”
The two walked in silence until they had crossed Park Lane and were making their way to the Stanhope Gate, their steps uneven given the puddles they had to avoid along the way.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at university?” Danielle finally asked when they stepped onto a crushed granite path. There would usually be dozens of children with their nurses scattered about the Hyde Park lawn, but the morning’s rain had the grass too wet for them to be playing out of doors.
“I am,” Andrew replied. “I’ve been... expelled. For the rest of the academic year.”
Danielle gasped. “Whatever happened?” she asked, trying to imagine Andrew defacing a statue or skipping classes. Neither matched his personality. He wasn’t a troublemaker nor a rogue or a rake. Not like his father had been at that age. Adam Comber, Earl of Aimsley, had attended Oxford, but Danielle doubted he had ever graduated.
“I got caught cheating,” Andrew replied, his gaze directed toward the gate.
Danielle inhaled softly. “But you weren’t, not really. Were you?” she countered, secretly shocked at his words.
He sighed. “I asked my brother to take my Greek mythology exam for me. He agreed, but the professor had seen me in the courtyard and remembered I was wearing a green waistcoat, and Anthony was wearing—”
“Oh, dear,” Danielle breathed, knowing immediately that Anthony Comber would have been wearing a much more audacious waistcoat, one featuring elaborate embroidery. “One quite unlike yours,” she finished for him. She grimaced. “As I recall, you know Greek mythology. Why ever would you—?”
“I still cannot read well,” he uttered. “You know I’m rot at it. The professor verbally asked me the exam questions, and I answered all of them correctly, but he had already spoken with the dean about our changing places, and, well, I passed the class but both Anthony and I were expelled.”
Danielle dipped her head, unsure of what to say. There was only one positive thing she could think of at that moment. “Then you’ll be able to attend all the Season’s entertainments with us,” she blurted.
Despite his mood, Andrew barked a laugh and paused beneath the gate. “Of courseyouwould be the one to find the silver lining in my cloud,” he murmured before he resumed their walk along the crushed granite path leading west.
“When were you planning to leave for Europe on your Grand Tour?” she asked, secretly hoping he would put off the trip until the summer—or later. With so many of her friends having wed or off at school, life in London hadn’t been the same since Christmas.
“Father has decided we won’t be going.”
“Not now, I understand, but later of course,” she countered.
“Um... not exactly.”
It was Danielle’s turn to halt, which forced Andrew to spin around and face her. She had gripped his forearm that hard. “Are you saying you’llneverbe allowed to go to Europe?”
He swallowed. “I must be married when I do so,” he replied.
The response was so unexpected, Danielle let go her hold on him and stepped back. “You’ll have to wait five or tenyears?” She knew neither one of the Comber heirs intended to wed until they’d had a chance to sow their wild oats and engage in all manner of irresponsible behavior. At least, that’s what they had claimed upon learning that their friends, the Grandby twins, had married last autumn and left for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies on their wedding trips.
Danielle wasn’t so sure Andrew was capable of behaving poorly. He’d always been upright and responsible in his younger years. She didn’t think his mother would have allowed anything less. As for Anthony, she wasn’t so sure. As the heir-apparent to the Aimsely earldom, he seemed more determined to have fun before duty required him to behave.
“Well, not exactly,” he hedged, in answer to her mention of five or ten years. “Father is understandably upset with us.”
“Go on.”
“He has directed that we must marry,” Andrew stated.
Her eyes rounding at his comment—Danielle had never heard of anyone having to marry after being expelled from university—Danielle stared up at him before she glanced around. “Well, then I suppose it’s a good thing you’ll be able to attend all the entertainments. It sounds as if you’ll need to be courting, and the Season will offer the best opportunity for you to do so.”
“I suppose,” he hedged, pulling her hand back onto his arm so they could resume their walk. “I’m not quite one-and-twenty, though,” he murmured.
“George Grandby is only one-and-twenty,” Danielle countered, referring to Viscount Hexham, the heir to the Torrington earldom. “He and Anne are over the moon happy, though. They recently returned from their wedding trip. George has accepted a writ of acceleration and will take his father’s place in Parliament, and Anne, Lady Hexham, has taken over running Worthington House. Perhaps you should speak with him. Discover what you can about marrying at your age.”
