The Earl's Wallflower Bride (7 page)

Turning his attention back to her father, he
accepted the brandy and sat in the chair the gentleman gestured to.
He took a sip of the brandy. It wasn’t as good as Malcolm’s. There
was no brandy in London that came close to what Malcolm had. But
the Duke of Hartwell had brandy worth drinking.

“Your daughter had good reason to act the way
she did this evening,” Warren confided. This wasn’t going to be
pleasant to admit, but Warren wasn’t one to act like he’d behaved
honorably when he hadn’t. “I didn’t realize I ignored her at the
two dinner parties I had invited her to, but a friend,” or rather,
someone who used to be a friend, “informed me I had, indeed,
ignored her. So you see, it’s understandable why she acted the way
she did.”

“You didn’t realize you were ignoring her?”
her father asked after he sipped his brandy.

“The conversations were such lively ones. The
gentlemen were discussing aspects of business that fascinated me,
and apparently, she contributed something worth noting that I
missed. I assure you, it wasn’t intentional. It’s just that when a
topic isn’t something that usually interests a lady, I assume
whatever she says has nothing to do with it.”

“Well, Iris enjoys topics that don’t interest
the average lady.”

“Really?” He recalled the Duchess of
Ashbourne and her friends suggesting such a lady existed, but he
honestly hadn’t believed them. He figured he’d be better off
expecting a Pegasus to pull up a carriage to his townhouse.

Her father smiled. “Yes, really. Growing up,
she used to prefer to be around me instead of her mother, and that
being the case, I introduced her to topics girls usually don’t
learn about.”

“And she didn’t get bored?”

“On the contrary, she wanted to learn more.”
Her father must have noticed his disbelief, for he added, “No one
was more surprised than I was. I fully expected her to go running
back to her mother on several occasions, but she didn’t. She kept
asking me questions.”

“What kind of questions?”

Her father shrugged. “Let me think… I recall
a time when she was ten, and she asked me to explain what happens
in Parliament. I did my best to sum up the answer quickly so as not
to confuse her, but it turned out she grasped everything I told her
easily enough. Some gentlemen don’t know half as much as she does
on many topics.”

“One of those being money?” Warren guessed.
Money was the obvious choice, given the fact that she had an old
Sovereign.

“Yes, money is one of her favorite topics.
You’d be surprised by how well she manages it. Her dowry will be
considerable, of course, but she has enough of her own money to
live comfortably for the rest of her life if she were to ever leave
you.”

Ever leave him? He wasn’t sure what to make
of that statement, nor was he sure he wanted to find out. It
sounded like there was a warning hidden somewhere in there.

“Iris is my only child,” her father
continued, “and since she’s a lady, I realize her position isn’t as
secure as a gentleman’s would be. Despite what she thinks, I have
taken the matter of her happiness into account, and I have seen to
it the money she’s earned through her own business ventures will
remain solely her own.”

Warren’s eyes grew wide in interest. “She has
business ventures?”

“Certainly. She’s my daughter. I taught her
everything I know about investing in businesses. She figures out
which business owners are worth giving money to, and she reaps a
portion of the profits, if there are any.”

Well, Warren was getting more and more
impressed with her. Who knew such ladies existed?

“Now,” her father added, “I didn’t tell her
about the money she has that you can’t touch. I want this marriage
to work. I don’t want her running off without giving you a fair
chance. I like you. I agreed to let you invite her to your dinner
parties in hopes something would come of it.”

“I see.” And, of course, since he’d showed
her such little regard at those dinner parties, nothing did come of
them. Well, not until the Duchess of Ashbourne intervened. “I
promise you that I’ll treat her better than I have in the
past.”

“Treat her as you would treat me.”

“I can do that.” He drank
some brandy then thought it’d be better to amend what he’d just
said. “I
will
do
that.”

“Thank you.” Her father finished his brandy.
“Maybe next time you and my daughter are in the same room, things
will be more amiable.”

“They will,” Warren promised him.

“Before we visit with the ladies, I did want
to ask what you think of the new Sovereign coin.”

Happy to oblige him, Warren began to discuss
it.

***

The next day, Iris and Bethany went to Hyde
Park. The conversation had started innocently enough. They’d
discussed things like how nice the day was and how well things were
going between Bethany and Robert.

But it wasn’t until they sat on a bench that
Bethany turned to face her and said, “All right, I can’t hold back
my curiosity any longer. How did things go with Lord Steinbeck last
evening?”

“It went as well as you’d expect,” Iris
replied.

Warren would never be her favorite topic of
conversation, but she felt she owed it to her friend to talk about
him. After all, if the situation had been reversed, she’d want to
know. And Bethany was one of the few people who sincerely cared for
her. So of all people she could talk to, Bethany was the best
choice.

“Did he spend the evening ignoring you
again?” Bethany asked.

Iris couldn’t help but be touched by her
friend’s concerned expression. “I didn’t give him the chance. I’m
sure he would have, had the opportunity presented itself, but I
figured a way to turn things around.”

She gasped. “Does that mean you ignored
him?”

“Yes.”

Her friend’s face lit up with excitement.
“What happened? How did you do it? What did he do? Was he
embarrassed?”

Iris laughed, quickly overcoming her
reluctance to talk about him. “If you give me a moment, I’ll tell
you everything. I just need to recall all the events as they
occurred.”

“All right. I’ll be patient.”

Despite her friend’s words, Iris caught the
anxious way her friend tapped her foot on the grass. Iris didn’t
hide her amusement. It was no wonder why she felt so comfortable
with Bethany. Bethany was one of the few people who let everyone
know what was on her mind. Iris knew exactly what she was thinking,
and that was a huge blessing.

Turning her attention back to the
conversation, Iris began, “When Lord Steinbeck arrived, my father
went to greet him at the door. Mother and I were in the drawing
room, and we could hear them talking. You won’t believe it,
Bethany…” She paused. “Well, maybe you will. Lord Steinbeck had the
nerve to tell my father he didn’t remember me.”

Her eyes grew wide. “He didn’t come out and
admit it!”

“Oh, he did.”

“I’m shocked. Just shocked. I’ve never heard
anything so appalling in my whole life. The least he could have
done was pretend he knew you.”

“Yes, it would have been decent of him, but
when it comes to Lord Steinbeck, there’s nothing decent about
him.”

“Sadly, I have to agree. So, tell me, what
happened after that?”

“To save himself further embarrassment, he
escorted me to dinner, but I didn’t let him touch me.”

Bethany shuddered. “You poor thing. I hadn’t
thought about him touching you. How awful! Since you’ll be his
wife, you’ll be expected to have his child, and to do that,
you’ll…you’ll…” She shook her head. “I can’t even think of it.”

“I haven’t gotten that far in thinking about
this marriage, either,” Iris agreed.

And really, Iris hadn’t. If she had a hard
time not getting all tingly and weak when he was in the same room
with her, how was she going to keep her resolve on the wedding
night? Certainly, he was expecting to come to her bed on their
wedding night. All titled gentlemen did that to get started on
their heirs.

“Maybe if you behave abhorrently when you see
him, he’ll say no to the wedding,” Bethany suggested. “Then you’ll
be spared sharing a bed with him.”

Iris glanced around, not sure they should be
discussing this in public. At the moment, no one was nearby, but
there were a couple of ladies who’d soon be passing them. One
happened to be Lady Cadwalader, and Lord knew she would make life
difficult for them if she overheard them talking about private
matters.

“Now that you mention it,” Iris said,
choosing to steer the conversation away from the wedding night, “my
behavior was so rude he just might not want to have anything to do
with me.”

Bethany’s eyebrows rose in interest.
“Really?”

“Yes. At the beginning of the meal, my father
asked me about the new Sovereign.”

“The new what?”

“It’s a twenty shilling coin.” Surprised,
Iris had to ask, “Didn’t you know about it?”

“No. I don’t bother with matters of what
coins are coming out. My father handles that, and some day, my
husband will, too.” Then, with a sly grin, she added, “My only
concern is how I spend them.”

Iris giggled at her friend’s joke but quickly
stopped when she saw that Lady Cadwalader and her friends were
within earshot. She gestured for Bethany to stop talking so the
other ladies wouldn’t overhear them.

“I don’t care what anyone says,” Lady
Cadwalader said. “If that miserable Marquess of Dodsworth attends
the Duke of Rumsey’s ball, I am not going. I would advise the rest
of you to do the same.”

“But the Marquess of Dodsworth is good
friends with Lord Edon, and Lord Edon is the duke’s son-in-law. I
don’t see how the duke can avoid inviting him,” one of her friends
argued.

“The marquess used to be banned from the
duke’s balls,” another said.

“That was before Lord Edon married the duke’s
daughter,” the first friend replied.

“Rumor has it,” another one added, “that Lord
Edon became friends with the marquess because he was banned from
the duke’s balls.”

“I remember that evening,” the first friend
said. “That was the one where the marquess took off his shirt.”

Lady Cadwalader shushed them and stopped to
turn to them, her disapproving expression silencing them. Iris
glanced at Bethany. The ladies were just a few steps away from
their bench. Iris quickly looked away from the ladies, hoping they
weren’t aware she could still hear everything they were saying.

“I will have no more talk of that devilish
gentleman,” Lady Cadwalader said. “I will not attend any ball he
goes to, even if it’s hosted by someone as admirable as the Duke of
Rumsey. I highly caution the rest of you to do the same. Any
association with him will damage your reputation. Do I make myself
clear?”

“Yes,” one of the friends said, the others
soon following suit.

“Good,” Lady Cadwalader replied, sounding
satisfied.

Since Iris heard skirts rustling, she
ventured a peek at the ladies and saw they were finally walking
away from her and Bethany. She released her breath. The last thing
she wanted to do was annoy them. The best thing she could do was
stay as far from them as possible.

“I don’t know why you let her and her friends
intimidate you,” Bethany said. “They’re busybodies with nothing
better to do than to pass judgments no one else cares about.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Iris said.
“People do care. They’re influential with the Ton.”

Bethany shrugged. “Only with people who care
about their opinion. The Marquess of Dodsworth is right about them.
They’re all hypocrites. The very acts they condemn, they do in
secret. It’s horrible, if you ask me.”

“I know. And I agree. I’d just rather be as
invisible to them as possible.”

“Well, they’re gone now,” Bethany said. “What
else happened last evening with Lord Steinbeck?”

Iris forced her gaze off the ladies and
turned her attention back to what she and her friend had been
discussing. “As I was saying, Father started talking about the new
Sovereign, and when Lord Steinbeck began to comment on it, I
interrupted him right in the middle of his sentence, as if he
hadn’t been saying anything.”

Bethany’s eyes twinkled. “You did? Really and
truly?”

She nodded. “I treated him the same way he
treated me. And I kept it up. I didn’t let him get more than a
couple words in before I made it a point to say something.”

“Good for you, Iris. I bet it did him good to
reap what he’s sown.”

“I don’t know if it did him any good or not.
I made it a point to turn the conversation to topics only my mother
would be interested in. Father’s much too polite to interrupt her
when she’s talking, so I kept asking her questions.”

“What things did she talk about?”

“Oh, she talked about her favorite fashion
this Season, the symphony, and who had the best balls.”

“But don’t those topics bore you?”

“That didn’t matter. What mattered was boring
Lord Steinbeck.”

Bethany giggled. “You’re right. So what
happened after dinner was over?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Father and Lord Steinbeck went to the den. I
told Mother I had a terrible headache and retired for the rest of
the evening.”

Bethany gasped. “You didn’t even tell Lord
Steinbeck good night?”

“Why would I? He didn’t deserve it. It took
all my strength to endure the meal sitting across from him. Father
was fortunate I didn’t slap him for not remembering who I was.”

“When you put it like that, I can’t argue
with you for refusing to say good night to Lord Steinbeck. He
really didn’t deserve it.”

“No, he didn’t.” She paused for a moment then
asked, “Do you think he might end the engagement?”