Page 23 of Better Than a Duke
Lady Pauline glanced up and smiled at Bradley. “Would you fetch me a lemonade?”
“My lady.” Bradley trotted off in the direction of the kitchen.
“So, Rebecca,” the lady said, making her smile even bigger. “What do you think of me thus far?”
“You smile too much,” Rebecca said, nibbling on a slice oforange. “With your teeth. Like this.” She gave a toothy smile. “It reminds me of a wolf.”
“Really,” Lady Pauline said, her toothy smile growing. “That’s what you think of me? That I smile like a wolf?”
Rebecca shrugged. “You asked me.”
“And you wish to open a bakery? What does your father think of that?”
“I don’t want to open a bakery.” Rebecca reached over for another orange slice. “I’m a magnificent portraitist. Though I suppose my studio could be above a bakery. That would smell heavenly all the time.”
“Ah. Not just a portraitist. Amagnificentportraitist. You’ve studied art, then? And apprenticed with the great masters here and abroad? Who do you claim as your main inspiration?”
The questions made Rebecca scowl. “I’m nine years old. I haven’t had time to go abroad. But I’m a good drawer, and I like colors. Oh, and I think my inspiration is Mr. Gainsborough. He’s quite good, if a little… too fond of rosy cheeks. Everyone he paints looks as if they’ve just come inside out of a stiff wind.”
“My. You have an opinion about everything, don’t you?”
“Don’t you? And Papa isn’t fond of heights. You shouldn’t ask him to go up in a balloon.”
“I know he isn’t fond of heights,” Lady Pauline returned. “That’s why I want him to go with me. I’ll comfort him.” She set her napkin aside. “So you will uninvite yourself, Becks, and allow the adults to do as they will.”
“You’ll look funny comforting him when he casts up his accounts all over the front of your dress.” Rebecca giggled at the thought, peeling the skin off the back of the orange slice and popping the fruit into her mouth.
“I’ll make a bargain with you, dear. I’ll show my teeth as I please, go with your father about London as I please, and marryhim if I please. You will stop thinking that you should have any say about what makes him happy or comforted. He’s been alone and miserable for nine years because of you.Youkilled your own mother. His wife. You owe him some happiness, before you suck every last ounce of it away like a leech.” She leaned forward. “I know what makes a man happy. I’m the wife he wants. Has he ever had you sit for luncheon with any other female?” She lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t think so. Don’t ruin it for him. And do not argue with me in front of him. If he thinks you don’t approve his choice, you will continue to be the reason for his misery. You don’t want that, do you?”
The orange slice went down the wrong way.
Coughing, Rebecca gasped for air. She pounded at her own chest, but the orange didn’t budge. From a distance she heard her father calling her name, and then abruptly Lady Pauline grabbed her out of her chair, bending her over and pounding on her back. Hard.
The orange slice splatted to the floor as her papa charged back into the small dining room and scooped her into his arms. Rebecca panted for breath, her eyes tearing because of the orange and for other reasons, while Papa thanked Lady Pauline for saving her. That seemed quite unfair, since Pauline had been the one to make her choke, but Rebecca didn’t say anything about that.
She needed to think about things. And figure out if her father had been as miserable as the lady said, and if he did need a wife to save him from being miserable. Because shedidwant him to be happy, and her motherhaddied an hour after she was born. She didn’t think that made her a murderer, and no one had ever said that before, but she needed to ask someone. Eddie. He would know.
CHAPTER FIVE
“Edmund, if you’re still digging a tunnel out here, I’m going to be cross,” Iris called, stepping out the back door of Grove House to peer into the garden.
“I’m not digging. I’m waiting for Becks to signal me so I can go back and help finish painting the birds.” His head popped up from the far side of a tangle of roses. “It’s been hours. Might I go see if she forgot? Because she promised she wouldn’t.”
“I’ll go over with you,” she decided. “It seems fair that in exchange for having you over there, we might do the same for Lady Rebecca.”
With a grin he galloped up to her. “Truly?”
“I never tease about friendships.”
With him beside her they walked back through the front of the house, out the front door, and over a few dozen steps until they reached Raines House. The butler, Butler, pulled open the door as they reached it. “Mrs. Silbern. Master Edmund.”
“Butler, Becks was supposed to send for me to come back and finish the birds, but she never did.”
Inclining his head, the butler stepped back from the doorway.“Yes, we had a bit of a mishap. You’ll find Lord Hentrose and Lady Becks in the morning room.”
“A mishap?” Iris asked, immediately considering and just as quickly discarding a dozen possible disasters that always seemed to involve young children. None of them were good.
“That’s for his lordship to explain, ma’am.” He took a breath. “Suffice it to say that everyone is well.”
