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Lord Purfoy, who had reason to thank Corinna for her interference in his love affair with his now wife, Eliza, and valued the Wolfes as the best of their friends, raised his glass. ‘Come on, Cory, tell us of your plan to save Ferdy from the hell of a cold marriage. Only such a noble scheme would have plucked me from my fireside to drive like a fiend out of hell to your door.’
Corinna settled herself on the sofa opposite the fire. ‘I know Ferdy’s been lonely ever since we all left Town at the end of the Season. On an impulse, it seems he decided it was time to marry.’
Her husband put his hand on her shoulder and said with a twinkle, ‘And as a grown man who knows his own mind, he has settled on Miss Payton for a wife.’
Lord Purfoy quaffed his brandy. ‘And who is this lucky woman?’
Max Flambard stirred himself to answer in his cynical way, ‘Hester Payton is a pretty girl with an overzealous idea of propriety. Oh, and she happens to be the daughter of Amelia Payton whose husband, you may recall, challenged me to a duel when I was barely out of school.’
Alick’s amused eyes widened. ‘Come on, Max, you make yourself out to be the innocent party. You may have been barely out of school but were quite old enough and concupiscent enough to cuckold the honourable Captain Payton of the King’s Hussars.’
Lord Purfoy whistled. ‘Flambard, you were always the most reckless boy at school. Weren’t you expelled for brawling? We all thought it a miracle you’d lasted there so long.’ And the men laughed.
Lord Flambard drawled, ‘Our school tolerated fighting among the boys. Only when it became war against the masters and school buildings did Eton assert its authority.’
‘Of course, only then were you expelled, after organising a riot!’ The men were highly amused, knocking back their brandy and slapping their thighs.
Alick intervened, ‘Which doesn’t seem to have ceased, Max. You’ve returned from exile, undaunted and unapologetic as the Lord of Misrule!’
Corinna clapped her hands. ‘Enough of your drollery, gentlemen, let’s get back to Miss Payton.’
The laughter subsided and her husband said, ‘Tell us, dearest wife, what you have against her, apart from the embarrassment of Max and her mother’s dalliance, and that’s not her fault.’
‘It’s just she seems determined to change Ferdy, to make him ordinary. She dislikes his clothes, and you all know how important those are to him. They express his lively spirit.’
Max Flambard and Raven Purfoy shared a conspiratorial glance and Lord Purfoy laughed. ‘Max and I know this full well, to our detriment. The running battles we had to fight on his behalf.’
‘Hence the reputation Max earned for being a fighting cock,’ Alick said with a wry smile, thinking of the time he had come across Max in an unofficial boxing match at the Daffy Club; with little doubt that a woman was involved.
The men were warming to their memories, but Corinna wished to get the conversation back to Ferdy and said with some asperity, ‘Miss Payton’s dislike of bright colours has meant Ferdy goes along with the restrained look she favours because he is the kindest of men and just wants to make others happy.’
Raven Purfoy poured himself another brandy. ‘This is worrying, I agree. What are his feelings for this young woman?’
Alick had sat down on the sofa beside his wife. ‘Well, he did say to me once that he had no intention of becoming reduced to insanity by the unruly emotions that assailed you, Rav, over Eliza. Perhaps he wishes for the predictable good sense of a marriage of convenience? I can see the attraction to an equable temperament like Ferdy’s. It is his business, Corinna.’
His wife turned to address him and the room. ‘If it is, of course I would accept his choice, and grow to like Miss Payton and welcome her to our family gatherings. But I think Ferdy has unexpectedly fallen in love, most inconvenient to his theories of marriage, and is suffering all the turmoil he hoped to eschew. Except this time it’s made worse by the fact he’s betrothed to another and there’s nothing he can do about it.’
The men stopped drinking and looked at her quizzically. Lord Purfoy slowly uncurled his long limbs and stood up. ‘How do you know this, Cory?’
Alick took his wife’s hand and chuckled. ‘Corinna’s female instinct is infallible. She just knows such things.’
Lord Flambard drawled, ‘He’s not in love with Miss Rose, surely? She has none of the looks of Miss Payton.’
Raven Purfoy’s lean face registered surprise. ‘You mean the mouse-like miss you introduced me to just as I arrived, Cory?’ He paused to recall her to mind and gave a sly smile. ‘Well, she has a certain fascination in her looks, I suppose.’
Corinna bridled. ‘She has intelligence and humour, and the kind of fine-boned looks that appeal to an artist and become more beautiful the more you know her. You men have to learn to be less obvious in your tastes.’ Exasperation made her spring to her feet. ‘Ferdy is completely overwhelmed by her, and most important of all, she adores him, which is just what he needs.’
Alick pulled his wife down to sit beside him again. ‘It may be what he needs, but sadly cannot have. He will not break his word to Miss Payton and she will never relinquish such a great catch as our kind, rich friend!’
Lord Flambard said slowly, ‘If he truly cannot live without Miss Rose, he could always make her his mistress. It’s common enough in Paris and becoming as much the thing here.’
‘Oh, Max! You don’t understand Ferdy.’ Corinna was exasperated. ‘He’s too honourable to treat Miss Payton or Miss Rose to half-measures. He will make his marriage work with all the willpower and generosity he has at his disposal. But his heart will shrivel through lack of love.’
There was silence in the room as everyone contemplated the situation with the dawning awareness of their powerlessness to affect anything.
Lord Flambard was gazing pensively into the fire and said, almost to himself, ‘There is one dramatic intervention that might make Miss Payton break off her betrothal…’ He paused to theatrical effect.
All faces turned towards him, waiting for the rest of the sentence, when a rap at the front door announced Ferdinand Shilton’s arrival. Gibbons, who was particularly fond of this friend of the Wolfes, beamed as he opened the door.
