A COACH RIDE REVEALS MUCH
Afew minutes later
“It was so fortunate Mr. Wellingham found us this afternoon,” Adeline remarked as she settled into the squabs. “Instead of me having to ask a museum employee to deliver a note to him on our behalf.”
“Indeed. I found him to be very amiable,” Ertugrul remarked. “I look forward to meeting his wife. A potter, did you say?”
“Yes. Her name is Frances Longworth. She came to London from Stowe, where all the very best pottery is made. Besides her skills in repairing pottery, she is an artist in her own right. She takes commissions to do beautiful paintings on porcelain objects.”
“Perhaps I should start with one of her pieces when I build my collection,” Ertugrul said on a chuckle.
“Your wife will be pleased to receive such a treasure as a gift,” Adeline replied, her gaze briefly directed out the window as they crossed an intersection. Although she didn’t want to seem anxious, she knew there would be little time to dress once they reached Bostwick House.
“Lady Rose is fortunate to have you as a friend,” Ertugrul said from his side of the coach. Although he would have preferred sitting next to Adeline, he had taken the bench that faced away from the direction of travel since it seemed the proper thing to do. On the way to the museum, David had sat next to her.
“Thank you,” Adeline replied. “I know she is nervous about tonight, so I apologize on her behalf if she seemed... preoccupied.” In reality, Adeline had thought Rose’s behavior was strange. She was usually far more relaxed in the company of new friends. Far more curious than she seemed while they toured Townley hall.
What if she had decided she didn’t like the sultan’s son? Could that even be possible? When the two stood together, they made the perfect couple, both more handsome than they had a right to be. Both from wealthy families. Both born into situations of responsibility.
“She seemed quite pleasant,” Ertugrul commented. “I understand from your father that there is to be a ball for her next week? I thought she might tell us more about it today. I would think such an event rather momentous in a young lady’s life.”
Adeline glanced out the window in an effort to determine how much longer their trip might be. She had to dress for that night’s ball. Have her mother’s lady’s maid do up her hair. “She is modest is all. Her parents are hosting the ball in her honor.”
“Is that... customary?”
Inhaling softly, Adeline said, “When a girl has her come-out, yes. The duke and duchess hosted a ball for her back then, but that’s been some years ago, so I think they merely wish to remind thetonthat she is not yet betrothed.”
“I find it curious she is not already married,” Ertugrul said. “A duke’s daughter? I would have expected such a fine woman to have been claimed when she was much younger.”
The words were said as if the sehzade was suspicious, and Adeline interpreted them as such even as a streak of jealousy had her wincing. “Me, as well.”
“What is it?”
“I wonder if perhaps there is more to it,” she said, not meaning for the sultan’s son to overhear her.
“Something more to it?”
She glanced up, struck at seeing Ertugrul’s expression of curiosity. “It’s just that... usually the young men here in England will wait until they are older to marry, but something happened a few years ago—”
“All those young men who married at a younger age?” he guessed.
Adeline’s eyes widened. “Why, yes.” She was about to ask him how he knew and realized David would have told him. “Seven of our male friends, including Mr. Wellingham, married during the spring that year. All very suddenly.”
“Because they feared their first choices for wives would not be there to marry when they were older,” he explained.
Adeline gave a start. Seven young men married seven young ladies they apparently didn’t wish to lose to another, and yet Lady Rose wasn’t among them. “Said as if you were here when it happened,” she accused.
“Your brother would read the letters from your mother. He was usually quite happy to learn whatever news she shared, except he told me there was the one time he wished he hadn’t received her letter. That was before he came to the Aegean palace to rescue Sultana Charlotte.”
“Three years ago,” Adeline said, realizing it would have been exactly three years ago since so many of their mutual friends had wed. “He and Lord James had only been gone a couple of months when all that happened. He must have felt affection for one of the young ladies.”
“My father sensed his... disquiet,” Ertugrul said. “He offered him a concubine from his harem.”
Adeline struggled to keep an impassive expression on her face. “Oh?”
“One of the virgins. My father had several concubines he never took to his bed—they were gifts, you see, so he had to accept them—but he hadn’t yet made arrangements for them to marry outside of the household.”
Obviously the sehzade was unaware that their topic of conversation was entirely inappropriate, but her curiosity had Adeline hoping he would say more.
