“How else might it be interpreted?” his father said coldly.
“We were equally drunk and therefore, one might argue, equally to blame for what happened after. Georgie certainly made light of it, and would quite happily have forgotten thewhole incident, had there not been a child in the case. As to the cause of it, there is no need to speak of taking advantage! It was no such thing.”
His father rubbed his face tiredly. “I beg your pardon. I know that you would nevereverdo anything so reprehensible. Even a whole bottle of brandy could not induce you to forget yourself so far as to force yourself on a woman.”
“I certainly hope not,” Jamie said, although a corner of his mind would forever wonder if he had indeed done just that. If only he could remember!
“An awkward business,” his father said, refilling his brandy glass. “Naturally, you had to marry, but why rush off for a licence at Oxford? You could have been married in just as much haste at Staineybank, with your own friends about you, and with your father by your side, as I should have been. Who gave Georgie away?”
“A neighbour.”
“You see, I could have fulfilled that office for her, or any of the Staineybank men. Richard Merrington, perhaps, or even the duke. But to sneak away like that… and then pretending to an affection neither of you felt… It is deceitful, Jamie, very deceitful, yet we all believed it… even I was convinced! You could surely have confided in me — your own father! It is a shade disappointing that you did not trust me with your secret.”
“It seemed best at the time,” Jamie said neutrally, too weary to go into all the reasons for the decision.
His father chuckled. “Aye, I suppose you wanted it hushed up as far as possible. No one likes to admit that marriage was forced upon him by a drunken night of pleasure. And now she has lost the child… or so she says. Can you even be sure there was a child?”
Jamie slammed down his brandy glass and rose to his feet, towering over his father. “Certainly there was a child, and ifyou ever,eversuggest the contrary to me again, then all amity between us will be at an end, Father. Georgie is a good woman who would not deceive me. She was with child, she was thrilled to be so and is devastated now. I will not hear a word spoken against her, do you understand?”
His father leaned back in his chair, eyebrows raised but with a gleam of interest in his eye.
“I understand very well. I was not mistaken, then, when I told her you are fond of her, but you have not told her so yourself, have you?”
“What has that to say to anything?”
“Jamie, she thinks you resent her.”
“Why on earth—? Oh, because we had to marry on account of the baby, and now there is no baby, is that it? But I do not— Surely she must know—?”
“No one knows anything, not for sure, unless the words are spoken, son. Just talk to her, openly. Tell her how you feel. That is all.”
22: Angels And Ghosts
As the season drifted on and the promise of April became the full flower of May, Lance began to grow bored with the constant round of social engagements. This may not have been unrelated to the return to Brinshire of many of his friends. The duke, after the exertion of not one but two speeches in the House, retreated early. Simon Payne, with a house in Hertfordshire to build and the orangery at Staineybank to oversee, left not long afterwards. The ladies lingered for a while, but by the middle of May, Lady Juliet and Sophia went to join Payne, and, to Lance’s surprise, Charlotte went with them.
“She is keen to get back to Staineybank,” Lily told him when they met at Almack’s. “I shall be going myself next week, when my Cheshire relations go home.”
“But the season at its height,” Lance said. “Surely the Duchess of Brinshire wishes to enhance her position as a leader of high society?”
She eyed him with amusement. “If I had any such ambition, I should certainly stay and attempt to better the Marchionessof Carrbridge in the spectacular nature of my grand balls. She holds at least three every year, you know, each one more glittering than the one before.”
“Are they all as crowded as last week’s? I could scarcely breathe, let alone dance.”
“Oh yes! She cannot bear to leave anyone off her invitation list, and since they all come, everyone thinks the event a failure if no one swoons away in the crush. But for myself, I prefer a quiet dinner with people I know, with good conversation afterwards and bed at a reasonable hour.”
“‘To sleep, perchance to dream’,”he said lightly, but her face grew clouded.
“To sleep… yes, but not to dream, I hope. I do not like my dreams at present.”
“I beg your pardon,” he cried, taking up her gloved hand and raising it swiftly to his lips. “That was inept of me, to remind you of your great loss.”
“I can never forget,” she said simply. “My poor little boy! I miss him so much, Lance. I could not see how I could go on after his death… could not imagine enduring the emptiness for the rest of my life. But then, I discovered friends who lifted my spirits.”
“The Merrington sisters,” he said.
“Amongst others.”
“But the baby… little Caroline… does that not remind you of your little boy?”
