Page 97 of Regency in Color

Frank stared.

“She should see her granddaughter,” Will reasoned. “How old is Lucrezia now?”

“Old enough that I don’t want her anywhere near all that nonsense.” Frank clenched the glass so hard he thought it might crack. “Next thing you know, Mother will have her trussed up and playing dumb for careless boys who don’t give a toss about women beyond owning them and old men who ought to know better.”

Will ignored this assessment. “That’s marvelous. We’ll give her a proper Season. Marie can sponsor her.”

Frank leaned over the bar and got very close to his brother’s smug face. “Over my dead, lifeless, rotting body.”

Raising an eyebrow, Will pointed out, “Dead and lifeless are synonyms.”

“So are knob and prick, and you still manage to be both.”

The floor creaked above the bar. Lulu was listening, and she was so interested that she’d forgotten where to step. Frank cringed.

Will saw it. Excited, he leaned back and looked up toward the balcony. “Is that Lucrezia?”

Lulu popped her head over the balcony to peep down, curious.

“It’s your uncle Will.” He smiled up at her, his arms wide. “The last I saw you, you were only an infant! I still recognize you, though. You look just like your father, you poor thing.”

Frank rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised you didn’t introduce yourself as the Duke of Bodmin.”

Will ignored him. “Come down for a moment, won’t you?”

Lulu waited for his permission. When Frank nodded, she started down the stairs.

His brother took in her dress with amusement. “What the devil is she wearing, Frank?”

Frank addressed his daughter. “Why don’t you show your uncle your latest creation?”

Lulu wore a pleated gold gown with costume armor on her slight shoulders, joined in the front with a chain. If he knew his daughter, she had a dagger hidden down the back of her sandal. “I’m Athena.”

She gave a hesitant spin to show off the new dress she’d made, and Frank caught a glint of steel at her ankle.

That’s my girl.

He smothered his smile and returned his attention to his brother. “Lu makes all her own dresses.”

Will visibly shuddered. “You should have said if you needed money.”

“We don’t,” Frank snapped.

Lulu lingered in the doorway, listening. “Are we going to the party, Dad?”

“No,” Frank said as Will said, “Yes.”

She looked at him askance. “Will Grandmother come here to meet me instead?”

And just like that, Frank’s heart broke into a million pieces. His mother would never set foot in Shoreditch, even to see her own granddaughter grow up. Oh no—even though she had disowned him, disinherited him, and publicly claimed he was dead, if she wanted to meet Lulu, he’d have to visit her on her territory.

Still, he wouldn’t have his daughter thinking she wasn’t good enough for Lavinia Creighton-Crowley. He’d just have to show Lulu she was worth so much more.

“We’ll go,” he said quietly. “Why don’t you start on a new dress?”