Slightly Tempted (26 page)

"We met the Earl of Rosthorn in the park," Freyja announced-it had never been her way to beat around any bushes, "and he issued an invitation from the Countess of Rosthorn for us ladies to take tea with her at Pickford House tomorrow afternoon. I will take Eve and Morgan up in our carriage, Wulf, so that you will not need to order one around."

"That is remarkably kind of you, Freyja," he said, spreading his napkin across his lap. "Joshua and Aidan have doubtless given permission for you and Eve to accept this kind invitation. I am not aware that I have given mine for Morgan to accompany you."

"As if I would need Joshua's permission to do whatever I please!" Freyja retorted, glaring at Joshua as if it were he who had just expressed such a gothic notion. "And why ever would you think of withholding yours from Morgan, Wulfric?"

"I assume," he said, indicating to his butler by the slight lifting of one eyebrow that his coffee cup was to be filled, "that your question is rhetorical, Freyja? The Earl of Rosthorn is not a suitable acquaintance for anyone in this family. His reputation is not that of a gentleman of goodton, and the way in which he has carelessly embroiled Morgan in unnecessary scandal has proved the point. I would rather you sent a refusal to the countess."

"It seems to me, Wulf," Rannulf said as Morgan was drawing breath to speak, "that it would be in Morgan's best interests to be seen to be on amiable terms with Lady Rosthorn. If the countess is known to have received her, then the gossip will surely die for lack of further fuel. Something far more interesting is bound to take its place soon."

"I would have to agree," Joshua said. "And it ought to be remembered that Freyja is still Morgan's sponsor during this first Season of hers. If Freyja sees fit to accept this invitation and accompany Morgan to Pickford House, then it must be unexceptionable."

Wulfric was eating his way through a large plate of food just as if they were talking about nothing of any greater significance than the weather.

"I resent the fact," Morgan said, setting down her knife and fork with a clatter-she had eaten nothing anyway, "that everyone is talking about me as if I were not here to talk for myself. If you have any definite or personal objection to the Earl of Rosthorn, Wulf, then speak out. If you do not, you can only object to the fact that instead of abandoning me as the Caddicks did when they left Brussels, he escorted me to Mrs. Clark's and arranged for my belongings to be brought over. And that then he gave of his own time and energies to try to discover what had happened to Alleyne. And that he escorted me whenever I needed to get air and exercise after nursing the wounded-so that I would not have to go about alone. And that after I had heard from Sir Charles Stuart about the discovery of the letter that Alleyne had been carrying, Lord Rosthorn hired a maid for me and brought me home in person, though I do not believe he had planned to return to England so soon.This is why you call him no gentleman, Wulf?This is why you turned him away yesterday and would not even allow him to pay his addresses to me?"

"Bravo, Morg," Rannulf said.

Judith had covered her hand on the table with her own. She patted it comfortingly.

"Ah," Wulfric said, looking up briefly from his food, "he worked that into the conversation this morning, then, did he?"

"He did," Morgan told him. "I would have said no, Wulf. Did you realize that? I would not force anyone to marry me simply because he believed himself honor-bound to offer. And I would not marry any man I did not love with my whole heart. But I resent the fact that you did not even give me the chance to choose my own future. I deeply resent it."

He looked at her for a few silent moments, both eyebrows raised.

"Perhaps you have forgotten, Morgan," he said then, raising his coffee cup to his lips with a despicably steady hand, "that you are eighteen years old, that until you reach your majority I am the one to make major decisions concerning your future."

"How could I possibly forget!" she retorted, slapping her napkin onto the table and giving up all pretense of preparing to eat. "Am I forbidden to go to tea tomorrow, then? Am I to be locked into my room with bread and water?"

He set down his knife and fork and looked coldly at her.

"I have always considered tantrums tedious," he told her. "But as Joshua has just pointed out, you are under the sponsorship of Freyja during your first Season. If Freyja considers this a suitable connection, then I will say no more."

"I do think that is a wise decision, Wulfric," Eve said, drawing his surprised eyes her way. "Of course you are concerned that Morgan not become the dupe of an unprincipled man, but most important at present is somehow to dispel this foolish scandal that has developed."

"Quite so," he said.

"Besides," she said, "Morgan is as sensible as the best of us and is to be trusted to behave in a manner befitting her family and station."

"Which is not saying a great deal, Eve, if you really think about it, is it?" Rannulf said with a grin.

"We are planning to take the children out sightseeing today," Aidan said. "Becky wants to see the pagoda in Kew Gardens. Davy wants to see the lions at the Tower. Any suggestions on how we might please both?"

The conversation moved into other channels and Morgan, darting a grateful glance at Aidan, who winked back at her, finally picked up her knife and fork and tackled her breakfast.

CHAPTER XIV

HE MUST TAKE HIS RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THEHouse of Lords next year, Gervase decided. All of his peers were there and were inclined to treat him with distant civility at best-as someone, perhaps, who did not take his responsibilities seriously. Those gentlemen with whom he did consort tended to be those leftover companions from his youth who were still idle but were now bored and jaded too-and they thought him the devil of a fine fellow for his escapades on the Continent and the manner of his return to England. He had described himself as jaded to his mother the morning he met Lady Morgan in Hyde Park. He was also bored and had been idle for nine long years. Nevertheless, he felt years older in experience than those companions, who no longer felt quite like friends.

It was time, he supposed, that he settled down and earned the respect of his peers. He deeply resented the fact that it had to be earned, that he had been robbed of both his good name and nine years of his life, but he would only rob himself of more time if he allowed himself to wallow in bitterness.

Bewcastle was his Achilles' heel, though. He could not seem to talk himself out of his deep desire to harm the man.

His mother had invited a few ladies of her acquaintance to take tea at Pickford House on the afternoon his own invited guests were expected there. At first he had not intended putting in an appearance himself. It was his mother who pointed out the desirability of his doing so.

"It is important that you be seen together," she said, "on the best of polite terms with each other and under the benevolent eye of yourmaman ."

And so he strolled into the drawing room while the tea was in progress. The room seemed to be full of fashionably dressed ladies-it really was quite daunting to walk in upon them as the only male. His mother sat on a small sofa close to the fireplace, Lady Morgan beside her, looking astonishingly youthful and lovely in black. Gervase bowed to both of them, kissed his mother's hand, asked Lady Morgan how she did, and turned away to make himself agreeable to the other guests.

Although there was no noticeable pause in any of the conversations, Gervase guessed that every eye had watched his approach to Lady Morgan Bedwyn and every ear had strained to catch every word they exchanged. An account of this afternoon's visit would doubtless enliven conversations at dinner tables and in theaters and ballrooms and drawing rooms this evening.

Would the scandal now be at an end?

Or would everyone be waiting for a betrothal announcement to be made before either party to the scandal could be accepted back fully into the fold?

Over the course of the next half hour Gervase was careful to exchange a brief word with everyone present. He discovered that he liked the Marchioness of Hallmere for all her air of hauteur and her strange though handsome looks-she was small with masses of barely tamed fair hair, darker eyebrows, and the prominent nose that characterized all her brothers too. She spoke in a forthright manner on a number of topics and did not disguise the fact that she was sizing him up on her sister's account. Lady Aidan Bedwyn was gracious and amiable and pretty-and surprised him by smiling warmly at the maid who came to remove the tea tray and thanking her. Lady Chastity Moore was a sensible, pretty young lady.

The Bedwyns were the last to take their leave.

"We have been invited, Gervase-you and I and Henrietta-to a ball being given by the Marquess and Marchioness of Hallmere three days hence," his mother told him. "Is that not delightful?"

Gervase looked in some surprise at the marchioness. He had not expected that after this afternoon's display for the sake of silencing gossip any of the Bedwyns would encourage further encounters between himself and Lady Morgan.

"The ball is in honor of Chastity's engagement to Viscount Meecham," the marchioness explained. "Both were quite willing that we cancel it so soon after my brother's death, but Hallmere and I decided that that would be unfair. And so the ball goes on."

"We will be delighted to attend, ma'am," Gervase told her, darting a glance at Lady Morgan, who was playing the part of haughty grand lady, as she had been doing all afternoon. He half smiled at her.

"Of course," the marchioness added, looking very directly at him-it must be a family trait, that look, he decided, "none of the members of my family will be able to dance as we are in mourning."

She rose to leave, and her sister and sister-in-law and Lady Chastity followed suit. His mother, he noticed, linked an arm through one of the marchioness's, and Henrietta moved between Lady Aidan and Lady Chastity. Gervase, considerably amused at such an unsubtle maneuver, offered his arm to Lady Morgan.

His mother, he concluded, must approve of her.

There was a space of perhaps two minutes when they were virtually alone together, his mother having stopped with the other ladies at the top of the stairs to point out some feature of a portrait hanging there.

"It will not distress you,chérie, " he asked her, "if I attend the ball to be given by your sister and brother-in-law?"

"No, why should it?" Her eyes sparked up at him, and he knew that there must have been some spirited family discussion over him.

"What did the Duke of Bewcastle have to say about your coming here today?" he asked her.

"I am here, am I not?" she said.

"And what does he say about my attending the ball?" he asked.

"As far as I am aware," she said, "he does not know of it. Why should he? It is not his ball."

"But perhaps," he said, "I will not go after all. I will not even be able to waltz with you,chérie ."

"Why," she asked him, turning her head to give him one of her very direct looks, "would Wulfric be so adamantly opposed to allowing you to pay your addresses to me, Lord Rosthorn? Youare an earl, and by the standards of the society in which we live you did do the decent, honorable thing by going to him to offer for me. Why does he hate you so much?"

"Chérie," he said, "must hehate the man who caused his sister to be the subject of gossip? May he not just simply disapprove of me? Were you so disappointed, then? Would you have said yes?"

"You know I would not," she said with a look of disdain.

He smiled at her. "Then Bewcastle did us both a favor," he said. "He saved you from embarrassment and me from heartbreak. With the question still officially unasked and still officially unanswered, I may still hope."

"How absurd you are," she said, frowning. "I preferred you when you were my dear friend."

They were outside on the pavement by that time, and the other ladies had caught up with them. Gervase handed Lady Morgan into the Marquess of Hallmere's waiting carriage and turned to do the like for the others.

"Mon fils," his mother said, linking her arm through his as the carriage rocked on its springs and rolled into motion, "she is a perfect delight. I would relinquish my title with the greatest pleasure to Lady Morgan Bedwyn."

"I assure you,Maman, " he said, patting her hand and winking at Henrietta, "that you will not be called upon to make any such sacrifice. Bewcastle has refused my suit, if you will remember."

Butshe had not. Not yet. And he was to see her again before the eyes of the wholeton . At a ball, no less.

He gazed after the departing carriage with narrowed eyes. Had he just told her he would be unable to waltz with her because she was in mourning?

They would see about that.

MORGAN HAD BEEN OUT RIDING EACH MORNING.She had attended church with her family. She had toured some of the galleries with Aidan and Eve and had gone to Gunter's with them when they took the children there for ices one afternoon. And she had, of course, taken tea at Pickford House, where she had been surprised to discover other guests apart from her own family group.

Nowhere had she been given the cut direct. If the ladies at the tea had seemed somewhat distant, they had also been polite. And they had not had a great deal of opportunity to snub her anyway since the Countess of Rosthorn had kept her by her side all afternoon. Morgan had found her charming-she had the same slight French accent as her son.