“My apologies. I should have discouraged him. I think that he felt some obligation to deliver me safely back to you.”
Audrianna opened a fan and waved it in front of her face, even though the day was not overly warm. “How chivalrous of him.”
Daphne sought to move the topic elsewhere, far away from Castleford. “If you do not mind, I would like to stay here tonight and return to The Rarest Blooms tomorrow.”
“Of course. We will send you down in a carriage whenever you like.”
“I was wondering if, in the morning before I go, we might have Celia visit so I can see her and tell her about Katherine.” She told Audrianna what had happened and that Katherine was gone.
“I will send a footman with a note to Celia this evening,” Audrianna said, the story dimming her mood. “We can all have a late breakfast together.”
“Thank you. There is another matter that I would like to explain to both of you too, and Verity when I see her. I am in need of your help.”
Audrianna gazed over innocently. “A personal matter?”
“Not really. It touches on me but mostly centers on others. It concerns a little quest I have undertaken to see some old injustices righted.”
Audrianna’s expression fell. “A quest? In the name of justice? How . . . noble.”
“You expected something else?”
Audrianna shrugged and appeared chagrined. “I will confide that Verity and Celia have been writing to me and suggesting the most outrageous things. About you and Castleford.”
“So you have all been gossiping through the post about me.”
“I want you to know that I was very sure that they misunderstood, and I wrote to tell them as much.”
“Thank you.”
“After all, I am your cousin. If you and the duke were—well, if he pursued you the way they claimed, you would have written and told me. You would have never left me to rusticate on the coast without so much as a tidbit to chew on.”
Daphne hoped her smile looked like agreement.
“No, I was very sure the two of them had concocted this grand seduction scheme on his part, out of their imaginations,” Audrianna said earnestly. “And even if they were correct, it went without saying that he would be on a fool’s path to attempt such a thing with you, of all women.”
“I appreciate your confidence.”
“Well, I think I know you best, Daphne. I was sure I had got it right and they had got it wrong.” She reached into her bodice. “That is, until I found these.”
She opened her hand to reveal two diamond earrings.
Daphne stared at them. Audrianna began laughing in a most insinuating way.
“Y
ou appear distracted, Summerhays. I do not think it is the repercussions sure to come from Peterloo that cause it either.”
“That disaster can wait a few days. It will not be going anywhere soon.”
They sat in the library enjoying some excellent port. Castleford noted, as he often did these days, that when he imbibed now, it tasted better. A bit of abstinence seemed to reawaken his senses.
The same thing seemed to be happening in bed, too. One would think a man’s performance would suffer from lack of practice, but the evidence proved otherwise.
“If I am distracted, it is domestic matters that do it. Audrianna’s giving birth soon is enough to drive me half mad, but now my brother—” Summerhays shook his head and laughed.
“You do not care for this woman, I think. Is she an adventuress?”
“You will always think the worst of marriage, won’t you? I have no opinion of her, in truth. I have just met her. He loves her very much, however, so that is all that really matters to me. No, I am thinking about where he is now and the
other
woman he is with and her reaction.”
He referred to his mother. Summerhays had returned to this house when his brother returned from the war, wounded beyond repair it was thought. He had taken his brother’s place in the world and protected the marquess from the overbearing mother who would make him a child again.
It had all meant the end of a hedonistic partnership between Castleford and Summerhays. Castleford had resented the sudden estrangement for years.
“I expect there are theatrics happening that are both comical and tragic,” Castleford said.
“Exactly. I have imagined my mother’s face when my brother arrived and introduced his wife so many times that—” Summerhays grinned. “Hell, I don’t know if I am glad I’m not there to see it or sorry that I am missing a fine show.”
Castleford mimicked the wide-eyed mixture of shock and horror that probably masked their mother’s face after that introduction. Summerhays laughed enough for his eyes to tear.
He caught his breath. “Of course, I also worry whether this Joanna will know to stand up to her at once. Whether he will too.”
“It sounds to me that your brother is able to stand on his own two feet again. Literally and metaphorically. If he needs to lean on someone, he has a wife. Your job is done, Summerhays. He will carry the family torch now. You have enough influence of your own in the Commons, though. You still get the best of it—wealth, power, and privilege—yet you are spared the tedious parts of being a marquess. I would say your future looks ideal.”
“I suppose so. I am relieved for that, along with the knowledge now that his time with us will not be too short.”
Castleford stretched out his legs. “You realize this means that you can have fun again. No more need for strangling discretion either. Hell, it can be like old times, side by side.”
“I think if we did some of those things side by side again, Audrianna would shoot me.”
“Yes, probably so.” He sipped more port. “Damn.”
They drank like the two old friends they were. A comfortable silence hung. Then Summerhays looked over, with the rakish lights from years ago in his eyes.
“So?” he asked.
“So?”
“Hawkeswell wrote to me. Frequently. He could not bear that I was not here for it. A week or ten days, you told him.”
“Oh.
That
so.
“Did you seduce her?”
“No.”
Summerhays accepted that without comment. Unlike Hawkeswell, he did not gloat or goad.
“However, we are having an affair. You may as well know. I am not good at keeping such things discreet.”
“All the same,
I
will try to.”
“Once I decided I should marry her, I decided a real seduction would not be the best start. So, despite trying my damndest, in the end I didn’t. I astonished myself. I hope such selflessness is not habit-forming.”
Summerhays showed honest shock. “You astonish
me
, with this casual, passing mention of marriage. I never thought I would see the day when you wed, not even to produce an heir. When will this happen?”
“That is not settled yet. It might be best not to tell your wife, since it was supposed to be a secret still.”
Summerhays poured more port into both their glasses. He raised his. “I congratulate you. Mrs. Joyes is an exquisite woman.”
Castleford accepted the toast. He was very glad that Summerhays was back in town. For one thing, Summerhays understood that Daphne was not merely lovely.
Chapter Twenty-two
“N
o.” Hawkeswell slammed his fist onto the table in the card room at Brooks’s. “I won’t have it.”
He stood to emphasize his rejection of what he had just heard. “You will not marry that woman, Castleford. It is out of the question.”
Summerhays laid a calming hand on his arm and urged him to sit again. “You are being ungracious. Be happy for him, as a friend should be.”
“I’ll be damned first.”
Castleford looked meaningfully at Summerhays. “He has a protective inclination toward her. He expects me to ruin her life if I marry her. It is well-known that always happens when a man heaps jewels, silks, and furs on a woman and makes her a duchess.”
“She is a grown woman, Hawkeswell,” Summerhays said. “Nor is she one not to know her own mind or to need your interference on her behalf.”
“Damnation,
she
isn’t the one who will be ruined.” Hawkeswell sighed in his annoying way. “
Think
, man. What are you doing? You were not born for marriage. You were not educated for it either. Hell, you are
Castleford
. You stand for something. Something important, and it isn’t the domesticated life.”
“Such histrionics, Hawkeswell. Such touching concern for my welfare and reputation too. Have no fear. This does not herald the end of civilization. I will still be me no matter what.”
Hawkeswell laughed bitterly at that. Even Summerhays smiled at the notion.
“You think so?” Hawkeswell said. “Let me tell you, my friend, marriage is only a fit state for a man who finds himself in two situations. Either he must be slavishly in love like I am, or he must be utterly indifferent. Anything in the middle will cause untold annoyance. Tell him, Summerhays. Explain to him how wives are only joys when you are so besotted that you find their little manipulations adorable instead of maddening. Talk some sense into him.”
“It is past time for him to marry, you must admit.”
“For anyone else, true. But not
him
.” He looked away, frustrated, like a man trying to speak to a stranger who does not know his language. Castleford found his dismay charming.
Hawkeswell shook his head forlornly. “The best last hope of mankind, and it comes to this.” He sighed. “She bewitched you. That is the only explanation. Caught you in your own game.”
“You were right, Castleford,” Summerhays said apologetically. “I was wrong. You should not have told him yet. I should not have pressed you to do so.”
Hawkeswell’s head snapped around. “
Yet?
Have I been made privy to a secret? That is odd for an engagement that involves a duke.” He peered over severely. “When will you publish the announcement?”
“They are being discreet still. Until it is all settled,” Summerhays explained.
Hawkeswell frowned suspiciously. Dark amusement narrowed his eyes. “Summerhays, you are too good. I think our friend has taken advantage of that. I can think of only one thing that has to be settled before an engagement is announced, and that is whether there is any engagement at all.”
Castleford yawned and allowed his attention to wander. He noticed that Latham was playing cards in the far corner. Latham looked up from his hand just then and nodded his acknowledgment.
“What a cynical person you are, Hawkeswell,” Castleford said. “I would worry that marriage caused it and fear for myself, but it was always a tendency in your character. As for this small change in my life heralding doom the way you say, I assure you that will not be the case. Now, regarding the political crisis that brought us together here—”
“He is trying to change the subject, Summerhays. I am telling you, I am right. There is no engagement.”
“Is he right? Now that I think about it, you did not tell me you were engaged last night. You only said you had decided to marry her.”
“And I will.”
“Did you propose?” Summerhays frowned now too, much the same way Hawkeswell did.
“She knows my intentions. I made them very plain.”
“It is customary
to propose
,” Summerhays said. “Women like to be asked, not merely informed of a man’s intentions.”
“She won’t have him,” Hawkeswell said. “Trust me, she has not agreed to this. If she ever does, Castleford, the price will be that you reform.”
“Then mankind is safe. Its last, best hope will not fall. However, I do not expect any such demands.”
“Hell, she has you almost half-reformed already.”
Hawkeswell kept putting the worst possible light on everything. The man did not seem to see the obvious other side of things, which was that a person almost half-reformed was still more than half-bad. Once he and Daphne were married, Castleford assumed the balance would tilt back to the unreformed side even more again.
“When
do
you expect the announcement?” Summerhays asked.
“Soon.”
“How soon?”
“A week at most. Maybe ten days.”
C
astleford stood and stretched his legs. One reason he did not gamble much was that the chairs at gaming tables were often uncomfortable. After two hours sitting at this one and not even having the fun of card play, he was more than done.
The men who had joined Summerhays, Hawkeswell, and him appeared very serious and sober as they also prepared to leave. More than a few other tables noted the conversation breaking up, just as the men sitting at them had noticed just who had gathered here at Brooks’s and the way in which whatever was said was spoken too low to do any decent eavesdropping. Castleford trusted that Liverpool would hear of this meeting within the hour and sweat a little.