Page 20 of Better Than a Duke
“No. Eleven years ago I was just out, and you asked a cotillion of me. You told me I looked as graceful as a swan.”
Now Edmund was laughing. “You said that, my lord?”
“Iris Flexing,” he mused, running the name along his tongue and his memory. There had been so many women with whom he’d danced before his marriage, but certainly he would have remembered one with striking hazel eyes and golden hair. One who—“Wait a moment. You got strawberry cream on my sleeves, because you had it all over your hands and didn’t tell me.”
Her smile deepened, her striking eyes sparkling. “Youdoremember.”
“Remember? I narrowly avoided being called Sticky Hentrose for the remainder of my life.”
Edmund fell on the floor, howling. “Oh! I can’t breathe!”
At that moment Rebecca bounced into the room. “What’s going on? Did someone poison Eddie?”
“Your papa danced with my mama once,” the boy choked out, still rolling about, “and she got strawberry cream on his sleeves, and everyone called him Sticky Hentrose!”
“I had to bribe three people to keep it quiet.” Beckett continued gazing at Iris Flexing Silbern. “Who did you end up marrying? A Silbern, I know, but…”
“Thomas Silbern. The second son of Viscount Bellamy.” She sent her son a glance. “He passed away four years ago.”
“Sticky Hentrose?” Rebecca repeated, lifting both eyebrows. “That could have been humiliating for me. You should tell me if someone gives you a silly nickname.” She dipped a grand curtsy.“Pleased to meet you. I’m Lady Becks, accomplished portraitist and daughter of Sticky Hentrose.” Then she giggled. “I don’t think you would have let me come to London if people called you that.”
“You are absolutely correct, Cricket.” Grinning, he bent down to offer Edmund a hand and help him to his feet. “Now collect your wooden birds and find some paint, you two.”
“Oh! We finally get to paint them? I’ve been asking for ages!”
“Yes, I recall.”
Arms laden with a dozen wooden birds, they scampered out of the morning room, leaving him alone with Iris. “Is that how you’ve remembered me after all this time?” he asked. “Sticky Hentrose?”
She smiled, the expression making her hazel eyes dance. “I didn’t remember you until the moment I walked into your house yesterday. You might have told the children that you found it funny at the time, as well, andthat’swhy no one attempted to give you that nickname.”
Shrugging, he grinned back at her. “I may have exaggerated the episode a little.”
“I recognize the strategy. In fact, I sometimes wonder if Edmund thinks I’ve had as many absurd encounters as I’ve claimed, or if he knows I just like to see him laugh.”
“Rebecca’s middle name has become ‘You’re Bamming Me,’ so I know what you mean.”
She stood up, and he climbed to his feet, as well. “I should be going,” she said. “Aunt Margaret has a shopping excursion and requires someone to push her. If you tire of Edmund, please see him back to Grove House. His tutor, Mr. Fredericks, has several mathematics and history lessons prepared for him.”
“I’ll keep him until after luncheon, if you’re amenable to that. Rebecca and I are dining with a… new friend, and she asked if Edmund might attend, as well.”
“You’re certain you don’t mind?”
“Not at all. I believe in testing someone’s resolve at the very beginning of an acquaintance. It keeps me from wasting time on people who lack spleen.”
Iris walked into the foyer, where Butler opened the door for her. “Evidently I do the same, Sticky.”
Beckett laughed as she left Raines House and turned left. Iris Flexing. He didn’t know if he would have recognized her without her prompting, but he did recall that at the time she’d been one of the half dozen young ladies he’d been considering for marriage before he’d met Lady Lydia Langford of the manyLs and the adoring smile. And though he’d made the wrong choice eleven years ago, he wasn’t certain if the strawberry cream chit would otherwise have been his choice. Or if she’d ever regarded him with an eye toward more than sharing her dessert.
Rebecca had never spent a more magnificent morning. Eddie pointed out that they needed paint and brushes, which turned into a trip in the barouche to the Pantheon Bazaar where they went to a colorman’s shop and bought oil paints, and then to a sweets shop where Brubbie gave them each a shilling to purchase whatever they wished. After that, they found the most marvelous pet shop where Brubbie did not let her buy a monkey, even though it was darling and wore a hat and trousers.
“I’m going to ask Papa about that monkey,” Rebecca said, sitting back in the barouche as the vehicle rolled toward Grosvenor Street. “It liked me very much.”
Brubbie, on the opposite seat, nodded. “Ask to your heart’s content, Lady Becks. Your papa will say you’re monkey enough for one house.”
That did sound like something Papa would say. “What about a parrot, then? I could teach it to talk. The red ones were lovely.”
“Lord Hentrose would say you already do enough chatting for any five people.”
