‘He is.’ Lady Alice signalled to the waiting maid to send in the tea tray and then gestured to the visitors to take seats. They waited for her to sit before taking their places. ‘He stayed with us last night. He and my father sat up long into the small hours.’
‘Scheming?’ asked Jacob.
‘What else? They’ll be in presently. How is your investigation going?’
‘We’re making progress. We found the missing manuscript and it has been returned to its owner.’
‘So that concludes your business here?’ she asked hopefully.
‘There’s another matter that now requires our attention, but I don’t want to bore you with the details. Did you enjoy our excursion to the fort? I was telling Smith how you and Miss Fitz-Pennington rode like Furies up the road, scattering the rest of us in your wake.’
‘Furies?’ She pursed her mouth into a little moue of disapproval. ‘That’s not very flattering, Dr Sandys. They were ugly spirits of vengeance hounding poor Orestes, were they not?’
Jacob grimaced. ‘I see that social small talk is not my forte. I apologise. You both looked marvellous.’
She chuckled. ‘Why thank you. I will accept that compliment.’
‘I understand that you already knew one of the party– a Mr Langhorne. His father works for yours, I believe?’
‘That is so. I hope you’re not jealous? There’s no need to be.’ Her tone was arch, but he resisted the opening for flirting. The tea tray came in, carried by a footman. It was loaded with muffins and cakes as well as a teapot and crockery. Lady Alice poured for her guests with the ease of practice as a society hostess. The footman handed the cups round. ‘How well do you know Mr Langhorne, Dr Sandys?’
‘Not well, but enough to understand that he aspires to be a writer and admires Mr Wordsworth.’
‘Mr Wordsworth is an interesting poet, is he not? I confess that I find many of his poems vulgar and even alarming– and then he can hit a note of sublimity that makes me forgive all his flaws.’
‘I agree with you, Lady Alice,’ said Alex. ‘He is somewhat uneven in what he produces.’
Lady Alice seemed annoyed at the reminder that he was present but remembered herself in time to give Alex a gentle smile. ‘Quite so.’
‘Has Mr Langhorne shown you any of his verse?’ asked Jacob, trying to nudge them back onto the topic which interested him most.
‘Sadly yes. I fear he has formed an attachment to me, which is not returned– a most unsuitable match. My father would never approve. It did provoke Mr Langhorne to putting his feelings into poetry. It was a very uneven production– embarrassingly bad. I’m gently trying to let him down.’
‘That sounds wise,’ said Jacob. ‘Spurned lovers can be driven to do rash things. I wouldn’t be on your own with him if it can be avoided.’
‘Of course not. It wouldn’t be decent either,’ she added.
And yet the household had attempted to bring Jacob into the room alone with her against the rules of propriety. What was going on? Was someone trying to force an impropriety which would shackle him to her? Never had he felt so grateful to Dora for insisting on Alex’s escort. The threat had been quite different from the one they had imagined.
‘And what is his father like?’ asked Jacob.
‘Dear Mr Langhorne. I’m afraid he knows his chemistry but made a muddle of his finances, and my father had to rescue his manufactory. It goes quite well in the Furness business interests, Father said, as gunpowder requires special shipping arrangements– a premium government contract. Not that I know anything about that, of course.’
‘Of course.’ He shared a smile with her, both tacitly acknowledging the stupidity that society would have elegant ladies to be ignorant of anything outside the domestic sphere.
‘And General Wellington’s new push in the Peninsula campaign is bringing in much welcome business. Father has promised us all very generous dowries.’
Alex looked interested in that comment. ‘How many sisters do you have, Lady Alice?’
‘Oh, you!’ She laughed as if she suspected him of making a joke. Jacob had reason to know that Alex would not mind marriage to an heiress could he find one who accepted him as he was, which was a tall order admittedly, what with the Hellfire scandal, his proclivities and the lack of prospects.
Still, he was handsome. That counted for a lot and might be enough for a younger daughter.
It was at that juncture that Jacob’s brother deigned to make his entrance, swaggering and spruce in his black morning coat and crisp white linen.
‘Ah, Jacob, you came. Good.’ He did a doubletake when he saw Alex. ‘And this is?’
Smith stood up and bowed.
