Hugh dropped his fork.
“Hugh, really. Be more careful.”
Hugh swallowed the bit of bacon in his mouth and it felt jagged going down. Adele had lost the countess. What must she have been feeling?
“I met the Countess of Sweeney. It was her home I stayed in while my memory was gone.”
“Right, of course.” Helena turned her attention back to the newspaper.
“Lady Adele is the countess’s companion. I wonder what she will do now.”
Helena lowered her paper and glared at Hugh over the top of it. “Lady Adele is the plain girl you danced with at the Wakefield ball. Canbury’s daughter.” Her tone was not approving.
“Yes.”
Helena lifted the paper back up. “I imagine there is some other wilting socialite in need of companionship. Or a child who needs a governess.”
“You would relegate an earl’s daughter to a governess position?”
“Canbury is clearly not supporting her if she has to take such positions. What an improvident man! You saw him carrying on at the Wakefield ball. I doubt he gave one thought to the poor girl after handing her over to the Sweeney residence. He’s too busy shoving his nose up… well. I apologize, that was rude of me. He wants to be Prinny’s right hand man and behaves abominably to achieve that end.”
Hugh sighed. “Yes, I recognize that. Still, the fact remains that Lady Adele is not responsible for her father’s behavior, and I find it insulting that you would have her be a governess rather than rising to the life to which she is deserving.”
The dowager lowered the paper again and stared at her son. “Life she should be deserving? What life does any woman have apart from her father or husband? Since her father is notinterested in taking care of her, she needs a husband, but who would marry her?”
Hugh rubbed his head, a headache forming. Had his mother always been this haughty? He found her company quite repulsive now, although he’d come to realize in the weeks since he’d come home that he loved her as any son loves his mother, but their relationship was complex. He did things for her out of family obligation more than love at times. She was stubborn and could be mean. And yet he had no doubt that she cared for him deeply and had doted on him when he’d been a child. It was hard to separate the woman who had held him to her bosom when he was sick or injured as a boy and the woman who now said disparaging things about other members of the gentry.
“I remain surprised that the Countess of Sweeney was even still alive to be declared dead in the paper today,” said Helena.
“What makes you say that?”
“She hasn’t been seen in years. Had you seen her before ending up at her house?”
“I’m hardly in a position to know.”
The dowager frowned. “You still have holes in your memory.”
Hugh nodded. “I spoke with Doctor Sanderson yesterday. He believes this is… just how it will be. I may continue to recover things, but there are some things that may just be gone.”
“Whoever hit you in the head belongs in a cell. Who would do such a thing?”
“I wish I knew, Mother. I think about it every time I can’t remember something. But no one has acted hostile toward me since I arrived back at home, so perhaps the danger has passed.” There’d been no reports of trouble from Mr. Sedgwick, the guard, either. All had been quiet.
Hugh was not truly convinced he was out of danger, though. Whoever had done this to him was laying low, perhaps, but was still free. Until Hugh could either puzzle out or remember whathappened, he’d never feel completely safe. But he didn’t want his mother to know that.
Helena nodded, but Hugh did not believe the danger had passed, nor that the man who had gone to such lengths to injure him would have given up so easily. Likely he was biding his time, or he’d been spooked by Mr. Sedgwick’s presence. Hugh had been trying to put it out of his mind, but he never went out alone, and if he came home from the club late at night, he made his driver bring him right to the door and wait until he was inside. But worrying about what danger might befall him was maddening, so he tried not to dwell on it.
Hugh went back to his breakfast and wondered now what really would become of Adele. Was she still staying in the Sweeney home? Was she at her father’s home? Did she have another position lined up? And how could he find out?
He spent part of the rest of the day focused on that. He did not know the address of the Sweeney residence, just that it was somewhere in Marylebone. But when Hugh got out a map, he saw that Marylebone was actually a fairly large area of London. So he called on Lark instead.
“I’m busy,” Lark said when Hugh walked into his office.
“I won’t take but a moment of your time. I need to know Lady Adele’s address.”
Lark sighed. “I have grown fond of the girl, too, but this is folly.” And yet he reached for a piece of paper.
“Mother remarked that Canbury made quite the fool of himself at the Wakefield ball, but I did not witness that for myself.”
