Eloisa James - Duchess by Night (30 page)

My duchess, I presume, he said, carrying the hand up to his lips. His voice was dark and foreign, like that of a man used to speaking strange languages.

Harriet felt as if she were watching a play. How did Cosway know that he was facing his wife? And didnt he wish to retire to his chamber before he greeted Isidore? His face wasnt clean-shaven. Gentlemendukes!never had stubble on their faces, to the best of her knowledge. Thats what valets were for: to make sure that dukes pinned their cuffs, wore waistcoats, buttoned their coats

No valet could tame the wildness of Cosways face.

Id like to introduce a dear friend of mine, Mr. Cope, Isidore said.

Harriet bowed, and the moment she straightened she saw that he knew precisely what she was. Instantly.

His eyes were dancing with amusement.

Mr. Cope, he said, softly. Had I known that my wifes friends were of thiscaliber, I would not have rushed across al England to rescue her.

I need no rescuing, Isidore said cool y, just as if she hadnt planned precisely that.

I had no doubt, he said. Alack and alas, my mother is of a nervous disposition. I do believe she would have swum the Nile and bearded the crocodiles herself in order to bring me home.

Would Your Grace like to refresh yourself before joining the company? Povy asked. Harriet had forgotten he was there.

The duke shook his head. The duchess and I leave in the morning, and I positively long to see the decadent pleasures offered by Fonthil . Ive just come from a rather extraordinary wedding given for the Princess Ayabdar and yet from my mothers descriptions of Fonthil I expect to find myself shocked to the bone by Lord Stranges bacchanalian scene. I confess myself al anticipation.

I fear Your Grace wil be sorely disappointed, Isidore said. As shal I, if you are forced to leave in the morning. I myself do not plan to leave for several days.

He took her hand in his again and raised it to his lips, smiling. Harriet almost fel back a step.

Ah, but sweetheart, he said, his voice too low to be heard by Povy and the footmen, I am al eagerness for our wedding.

We are wed , Isidore said sharply. You may have ignored that fact for years, but I assure you it is true.

He shook his head. We signed some papers, or at least I did. Im not sure you were old enough to know your letters. As I said, Ive come from a proper wedding. It lasted four days, or perhaps longer; it was hard to keep track of the days or the pleasures.

Indeed, Isidore said. How fortunate for you.

I spent the time thinking of you. And planning our wedding.

She frowned.

We are going to be married, he told her. As befits a princessor in this case, a duchess who waited far too long for her duke to kiss her into life. Surely you feel as if you have been sleeping one hundred years?

Isidore was silent. Harriet hardly took a breath, so fascinated was she by the charged sexuality that flared between them.

I have never considered myself in need of a prince, Isidore said, final y.

I shal have topersuade you of your need, the duke said. And he smiled. He was by no means classical y handsome, in an English sort of way. He had a big nose, and al that tumbling black hair, and that golden-dark skin. But Harriet realized her mouth had fal en open anyway.

A wedding, the duke said. The kind of wedding celebrated in Gondar, from which I just returned. My mother is preparing the estate and invitations wil be delivered al over England. We may have to send a special invitation to Mr. Cope, of course. For some reason I think my mother may not know his name. His eyes slid to Harriet, and she realized with a start that she was simply standing there like a dunce.

I would be honored, she said weakly.

Youl forgive me for not taking your arm? Under the circumstances? There was a devil laughing in those eyes.

Harriet fel back and bowed, and Cosway swept Isidore through the door into the drawing room. There was a moment of dead silence and then a clatter of tongues that she heard straight into the antechamber.

In Which Lord Stranges Reputation Takes a Strange Turn

February 20, 1784

T he next night it started al over againa table of half-drunk Oxford professors together with some odd and highly intel igent actors, Lord Pensickle and Mr. Nashe. Vil iers came to dinner and stayed for port. Everyone talked of little other than the Duke of Cosways return, and the way he swept his duchess away to London after one evening at Fonthil .

I suddenly realized something, Harriet said to Jem. He was sprawled next to her in a chair. Now they had a routine. Once the ladies left he moved down the table and sat beside her without a word. It al owed him to do naughty things with his hands.

They felt happy sitting together. They never said it, but silence didnt make it any the less true.

What? he asked lazily. He was watching Mr. Nashe play chess with Lord Pensickle. Pensickle was a little the worse for port, and kept picking up the wrong pieces and gal oping them across the board.

The only dissolute persons in your house are women.

Oh, I wouldnt say that, Jem said. Look at Vil iers, for instance.

No, I mean it, Harriet said. She looked around the room. There were perhaps twenty men around the table. Down to the left, two of the Oxford professors were chattering about a recent visit to the Duchess of Portlands col ection at Bulstrode Park. Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, was talking about something cal ed a Banks Florilegiumand the need to raise funds for the project. His audience looked unconvinced. Nashe and Pensickle were playing chess.

Sul enly congregating in the drawing room (the ladies had made it clear that they did not approve of the new custom of separate evenings), were the Graces, Sophia Grafton and the rest.

Your house gains its reputation from the women you invite.

That is true of any house, Jem said, with a flash of anger in his eyes. Its one of lifes great unfairnesses. Mr. Avery, for example, maintains Mrs. Mahon in royal style. Shes doubtless out in the drawing room right now boasting about the little silver boxes hes bought her. But is his reputation any the worse for it? No.

Its grotesquely unfair.

The world is unfair, Jem said. Reputation is ephemeral and unfair. Why should the Duchess of Beaumont be famed for her liaisons and yet Mrs. Mahon be an outcast?

Jemma married before she had an affaire , Harriet said, jumping to the defense of her childhood friend. And then she didnt stray until she found her husband on the desk with his mistress.

A bitter moment, I expect, Jem said.

Very! Harriet said. Did you maintain a mistress while married to Sal y?

No. Sal y was enough to keep me busy.

Harriet spared a moment for a pulse of dislike for tal , slim, busy Sal y.

What are you two talking about? Lord Pensickle said, raising his head from the chess board.

Checkmate, his opponent said.

Pensickle gave a little snort of disapproval and pushed away the board. Every time I look across the table, you have your heads together.

Harriet gave him a cool look. We were actual y discussing mistresses.

Dont tel me you have one! Pensickle said, with a guffaw. I wouldnt have thought your instrument was old enough to function.

Harriet stiffened.

But before she could answer, Vil iers cut in. Now that is surely a matter of the pot cal ing the kettle black, Pensickle. According to the laments so widely distributed by your former mistress, you have somedifficulty there yourself. Al due to age, no doubt!

I must say, Jem said, I found the poem published in Gentlemans Magazine rather amusing myself. Though undoubtedly it had nothing to do with you, Pensickle. You have to admit, al those jokes about the pen that would cast no ink were clever.

Pensickles eyes narrowed. My pen has more than enough ink, he flashed. And at least Im dippin in the right kind of inkwel , if you dont mind the presumption, Strange.

For a moment Harriet thought that Jem would leap across the table. There was a sudden calmness around his large body, but he just grinned.

Vil iers and I are educating Harry about the responsibilities of manhood, including lessons in proper treatment of the fair sex.

Perhaps wel take you on next, though I doubt things would go as wel . Harry, after al , has found himself in the favor of one of the Graces.

That was true enough. Kitty was so saddened by the terrible accident that had befal en her darling Mr. Cope that she sought Harriet out at every possibility, hanging on her elbow and smiling sadly at her.

It aint Harrys inclinations that Id question, Pensickle said, pushing back from the table. I think Il be going in the morning, Strange. I dont mind the house being a little strange , but we al have our limits.

By al means, Jem said, smiling at him. Why dont I ask my butler to help you now? No need to wait until morning. Just think. You might get lured into another game of chess and lose, or worseone of the young ladies in the other room might request the use of your pen.

Pensickle knocked over a chair on his way out the door.

Harriet felt a little sick. The table had gone stone silent, natural y, but now eased back into talk as if nothing had happened. She felt the nearness of Jems leg, even though he had turned away and was chatting with the man on his right.

She turned to her left. Frederick Sanders gave her a queasy little smile and his eyes skittered away from hers. He was a middle-aged man with a cheerful red face and a parcel of coal mines, here to ask Jem to invest in coal.

As a matter of fact, Harriet had talked Jem out of the investment, based on the fact that the mines were dangerous for workers, but Sanders didnt know that. Hed been perfectly friendly to her up to this moment.

Then Vil iers, across the table, leaned forward. Want to go for a walk, Harry? he said, rising.

She grateful y rose as wel . And left without saying goodbye to Jem, though what good that would do from a gossip point of view, she didnt know.

I need to start walking, or so my valet tel s me, Vil iers said with a little sigh.

You look much better than you did a few weeks ago, Harriet said. Al the footmen were standing around the corridor. How much could they have heard of Pensickles fury? Would he say something to his valet?

I mend, Vil iers said. Povy bundled the duke into an enormous greatcoat, and Harriet shrugged into her own.

They walked out into the night. There was just a thin fal of powdery snow in the air. It came onto their hats, not seeming to fal as much as to suddenly appear with its chil greeting on lips and noses.

The windows of Fonthil spil ed dusky orange-red light onto the snow. They walked silently to the opening of the great gates, and then Vil iers paused, leaning against one of the pil ars. Damn, but Im a husk of a man, he said, a trace of an apology in his voice.

So am I, Harriet said. Have I ruined his reputation forever, Vil iers?

It would take an idiot not to know you are bedding each other.

I dont see why! Harriet cried, frustrated. He rarely whispers anything to me, or touches me.

Its in your eyes when you look at each other, Vil iers said. But theyre a strange crew at Fonthil . Most of the women are here for the free bed and board, and theyl not let a little thing like choice of bedfel ow stand in their way of free champagne.

Thatsdo you real y think so?

They are hardly acquaintances of Stranges, Vil iers said. Sometimes he doesnt even know the womens names. I have no idea why he opens his house to every light-skirt who makes her way here, but he does.

Never to actual night-walkers, Harriet objected.

I suppose he has some standards, Vil iers said wryly. The majority of them are fending for themselveseither as actresses or as sole practitioners, if I might employ the term.

That makes them more interesting than many ladies, Harriet said.

Exactly. If were discussing men, Vil iers said, then yes, some of them are friends. Theres the Game, of course, but I actual y think men chiefly like this house for intel igent conversation, in combination with cheerful y loose women.

Is that why youre here?

Im not yet in a position to avail myself of female company, he said, stil leaning against the pil ar.

Harriet threw back her head to look at the stars. Somewhere up there was the new planet, except it wasnt truly new. It was just new to them. The stars looked cold and very far away.

Should I leave? she asked. And she held her breath, because she didnt want to leave. She wantedoh, so greedilymore days like these, ful of vigorous exercise, vigorous argument, vigorous love-making.

Theyl discover your true gender soon, Vil iers said. And if they discover that youre a duchess, Harriet, then the fat is truly in the fire. It would be disastrousnot for Strange. For you.

But its just a joke, Harriet said feebly.

I saw it that way. If it had been nothing more than a short masquerade, we could have carried it off. But I thought we were talking about a few days. Now its a matter of time. The way Strange looks at you Damn, Harriet said, heartfelt.

You havent told him who you real y are, have you?

Harriet shook her head.

He wont take it wel . And, Harriet, the longer you conceal your rank, the more he wil see your revelation as a betrayal.

I tried to tel him, Harriet said, near tears. I couldntIl leave.

After tel ing him the truth, I hope. He deserves that. Vil iers had a touch of a smile on his mouth. How lucky you are.

To be so close to complete loss of reputation? she asked, startled.

I would pay for such intoxication. I might give up the final shards of my reputation for it. Give yourself one final day to savor.

Leave the fol owing day.

And he began to walk back to the house, favoring his right side, moving slowly.

But Harriet stayed behind, staring at Vil ierss back through the thin, icy veil of snow. She couldnt squash the hope in her breast.

Surely, surely, Jem would not be able to see her go. They separated during the days, of course. She read in her bedchamber or played with Eugenia.