Page 45 of Inconvenient Honor
“I, however, do,” Richard retorted, turning to face her. “I’m fond of my sister and her husband.”
Lady Sarah pursed her lips and forced a smile. “But he is a schoolmaster’s son, you must see that,” she explained. Having made her point, she nodded with satisfaction. “We really must get back to their graces. Lord Castlereagh will wonder what has become of us.”
She speaks as if she thinks I am a particularly dim schoolboy. I won’t tolerate it when we marry.He offered his arm without attempting to argue.If we marry, headded silently.
He led her back, wishing to ignore the conversation. Lady Sarah had other ideas. She leaned close in a pretense of intimacy and whispered, “Richard, surely you must see. She is” she stumbled over the word—“enceinte. A decent woman would be in the country if she found herself in an interesting condition.” She blushed scarlet.
Richard had to admit his sister looked rather obviously with child, and he wished Georgiana showed a bit more discretion in that regard, but he viewed it with resigned good humor.
In the brief privacy afforded by the entrance to their box, his companion had one last salvo before he could speak. “Your mother will not like that you allowed a person in that condition to address me. I certainly don’t. Kindly consider this for the future. I cannot like it.”
If you are my wife, you will entertain my sister and her husband, and you will like it.
Lady Sarah stepped into the box, saving him the need to respond.
Thank God.
In the vast expanse of the Royal Theater, Richard felt the walls closing in, snapping shut like a trap door. He thought again of the look the Mallets had given each other. They left to join Chadbourn and his countess, two other besotted fools. He longed to go with them.
He thought again of Lily.She won’t have you, you fool.
No other candidate for Marchioness of Glenaire struck him as any better than Lady Sarah. Do I have a choice?
Noone ignored a summons from a duke, not even the Marquess of Glenaire. Richard certainly didn’t ignore a summons from an influential member of the foreign affairs committee.
He cooled his heels at White’s though he’d rather have been working. He thought of the work piled up on his desk, and the wait sat badly with him. The polished wood, the well-worn leather, thesmell of cigar closed in on him where he stood in the foyer like a boy awaiting the headmaster.
The old despot only makes me wait to put me in my place. The only other man in England who would dare treat Richard that way, his father, sat in aristocratic splendor at Sudbury House. They both pretend to rule the universe while abler men keep Europe stable and at peace.
Unfortunately, the Duke of Lisle was also Lady Sarah Wharton’s father. He strongly suspected the duke didn’t plan to address affairs of state.
The faintest rustle of activity among the club servants announced the arrival of an elevated member as clearly as if they had shouted it. Richard rose before the old man even walked across the room.
“Your Grace,” he bowed correctly. “You wished to see me?”
The duke waved a hand with two fingers extended in casual salute toward a hovering servant and sank awkwardly into a broad leather chair; one Richard suspected no other member dared use. The servant hurried off. He needed no more information to fetch the duke’s preferred brandy and sweet nibbles.
The old man pulled his gouty foot to a footstool and settled his girth comfortably before gesturing Richard to sit.
Heat burned in Richard’s chest and died in his iron control.Don’t let the man flummox you.
Brandies arrived. Servants left. The duke sipped slowly in silence. Richard controlled his racing mind by calculating the number of reports on his desk, mentally dividing them into different numbered stacks and assigning a level of importance to each. He could wait as well as the duke and longer.
“You probably wondered why I asked you to meet me,” the duke said, words rumbling out like gravel down a rough chute.
Asked? I know a summons when I read one.
“I assumed you wish to know more about instability in Naples,” Richard answered smoothly.
“Naples? Unstable? Nonsense. We defeated the damned Corsican.”
You would know better if you bothered to read the briefings we send to the House of Lords.Richard clamped his lips tight rather than respond to what he knew to be ignorance.
Lisle pointed an impatient finger at Richard. “I asked you here about my daughter.”
“Lady Sarah is well, I trust. Last night?—”
“Last night I expected you in my study. The girl and her mother did, too,” the old man sputtered, spittle dropping to his cravat. “Hell,” he went on, “half of London did.”
