As he gazed round the servants’ table at tea, he pretended he did not hear Jenny’s endless opinions on the matter. She had been detailing her journey with Miss Wilcox for the past ten minutes.
“Now,” Jenny said, “I get to the good part. You will never, not in a thousand years, guess who we saw on the road.”
One of the maids ventured that it must have been Mr. Brummel. This was met with the usual jeers from the footmen. Peggy fancied herself in love with Mr. Brummel though she’d only seen his likeness in a newspaper once. The footmen thought this was both silly and rude, as Peggy was a comely girl and they took exception to Mr. Brummel being held above them.
“It was never Mr. Brummel,” Jenny said.
“It was Tom Cribb, I reckon,” one of the junior footmen said.
Benjamin, who considered himself very wise to the ways of the world said, “Don’t be daft, Jack. If it were Tom Cribb we would’a knowed it straight away. Carstares would’a told us.”
“It was the king himself,” Jenny said. “They say he’s gone funny and hehasgone funny. He told Carstares that if he buried the carriage, he’d get two in return.”
Perry did not know if Jenny were inventing the tale or no, but he did not think it very seemly, even if it were true. He also did not think the new valet’s apparent interest in the matter, as evidenced by his leaning forward, befitted a senior servant. Marcus was always interested in the king because his new master was interested in the king. Perry had already explained to him, repeatedly, that servants did not take on the interests of their masters. Good Lord, was he, himself, to start chasing after fox and shooting at birds because Lord Mendleton favored it? The notion was absurd.
“What exactly did he say, Jenny,” Marcus asked.
“Justthat,” Jenny said, appearing to take pride in everybody’s interest in the story. “Bury the carriage, get two back, there was a likely field just ahead. Oh, and we would need a shovel.”
“How did he look when he said it?” Marcus asked. “I am sure Lord Langley would wish to know it.”
“The poor fellow was what I would call disheveled, the buckles on his waistcoat were all undone and it was an odd-looking thing anyway, I never did see the like. Also, his hair was mussed, it’s a reddish-brown color if you was wonderin’ over it.”
Perry held up his hand, “Nobody at this table shall dare have the temerity to wonder about the king’s hair.”
All at the table were silenced after that and carried on with their tea. Perry could at least congratulate himself that when it came to Lord Mendleton’s household staff,hewas the king and he hadnotgone funny.
*
Georgiana had takenher time getting dressed, or rather Jenny had taken her time helping her. She had been sent above stairs to change a full hour before she was due back down for dinner. It was so different from Manley Hall! There, she did most things herself and then Marta, who also acted as diabolical kitchen maid, would straighten her hair into some semblance of order and do up whatever buttons she couldn’t reach—the whole operation taking less than a quarter hour.
Jenny had quite different procedures, including using a pair of hot tongs to take a curl that was already there and curl it another way. She could not say she was opposed to it, as she did not think her hair had ever looked better. It had gone from verging on unmanageable to extremely orderly, which was some feat considering how much hair there was to subdue.
As Jenny chattered on about a certain absent housekeeper named Mrs. Ripperton who was alleged to be just now in the country house relaxing with a bottle of the lord’s sherry, Georgiana could not help but reflect on her very sad lack of accomplishments. Of course, she recognized she was not particularly talented on a pianoforte, but to see Lady Mendleton’s surprise…or was it shock? She had not comprehended that she wasthatawful. Then the poor lady had searched her mind for anything else she might hold onto and eventually settled on horsemanship. Georgiana had allowed her to do it as she could not bear to disappoint the lady one more time, though she had some misgivings about riding sidesaddle while pretending she’d been doing it all her life.
“Well,” she said softly, “I must just figure it out.”
“Figure out what, miss?” Jenny had asked.
Georgiana had smiled and said, “Most everything, I am beginning to think.”
Now, she had gone down the stairs and entered the drawing room. She had been made aware that she would dine with the family this evening and it felt like yet another gauntlet to get past. She now understood that she would cost Lord Mendleton two thousand pounds were she to marry and she could not fathom what he thought about it. Well, perhaps shecouldfathom some of his feelings—Jenny had said he’d been stupefied by the news and drank brandy to calm himself. Then, there was the son who Jenny had described as rather dashing and an intimate of the queen.
Lady Mendleton rushed to her side and took her by the arm. Two gentlemen stood together near the window, one older and distinguished and one…very dashing indeed.
He was tall and fair-haired, though there was nothing insipid about the color—in fact there were different shades running through it from blond to light brown. He had lovely blue eyes the shade of a deep lake in summer and a firm jaw. The whole resulted in perfectly regular features. She supposed describing somebody as perfectly regular did not sound the highest praise in the world, and yet it was. His lips were the right size for his nose and his nose was the right size for his eyes and his cheekbones were rather prominent and spoke of eschewing indolence. His face was lightly tanned, which she found highly superior to some of the pasty-white faces she had encountered in her own neighborhood. He was a gentleman who went about on horseback and not hiding himself in a carriage.
“My dear,” Lady Mendleton said, “allow me to introduce you to my husband, Lord Mendleton, and my son, Lord Langley.”
Both gentlemen bowed and Georgiana curtsied. Thinking to leap over the fence ahead of her rather than tiptoe round it, she said, “Lord Mendleton, I am aware that I am already a great deal of trouble to you.”
Lord Mendleton at first seemed taken aback by this direct assault, but then rather captivated by it. “Think nothing of it, Miss Wilcox,” he said gallantly.
“Oh I do think quite a lot about it,” Georgiana said. “It is impossible not to, really.”
“Now you see how charming she is,” Lady Mendleton said, as if attempting to steer Georgiana away from the fence she was currently jumping.
“Miss Wilcox is very direct,” Lord Langley said. “That is not something we are used to encountering in Town.”
