“At least tell me she is a stalwart sort,” the queen said.
“Very.”
“She is not prone to fainting?”
“Not unless she means to,” Balthazar said.
“I suppose only you know how she would receive the news of your activities on my behalf.”
“I cannot know for certain, but I believe she would stand up to it.”
Queen Charlotte fiddled with a fan and then laid it down. She sighed and said, “Naturally, there is everything against it just now. Lord Hamill tells me that Mondrian, that horrid creature, is not actually dead and up to all sorts of mischief. Yes indeed, everything is against it, but for one thing—were I to deny you, I would find myself resented over time.”
Balthazar shook his head. “Certainly not, Ma’am, I—”
“Nonsense, of course you would resent it. You would do your best to hide such feelings, but I would know it. I always know it. Do not I know that my dear marchioness has steam coming from her ears right at this moment? I am not supposed to care, you see, because I am the queen. And truthfully, sometimes I do not.”
The queen had a far-off look in her eyes, as if recalling something.
“But then, sometimes I do. I am a person, though some would like to forget it. And then, you are a duke and must have an heir. If none of you in the Knights are to marry, what then? I think the king would begin to inquire why whole family lines were dying out for lack of wives.”
Balthazar did not answer and let a silence hang in the room. When the queen was weighing a matter, it was best to just let her get on with it.
“All your fathers started this thing and they all had wives. How did the duchess, your mother, view it when your father left the house late at night?”
“She thought he was going to a club that only met at midnight,” Balthazar said with a smile. “She thought it was something to do with Parliament and politics and viewed it a rather silly conceit. Though, I do not believe Lady Rosalind would be so fooled.”
“Hmmm, do you suppose you could wed her and then leave her in the countryside? Just visit from time to time to get her with child? The house in Essex is very well turned out. You could leave her a pile of money to redecorate the place. That always seems to keep a lady busy, though I cannot fathom why.”
His eyes widened at that prospect. Leave Lady Rosalind in Essex, alone on his estate? He imagined she’d be there for all of ten minutes before she’d designed some outlandish scheme to find herself in London. As Lady Hightower had already astutely pointed out, Lady Rosalind Bennington was frighteningly enterprising.
No, Lady Rosalind was not the sort who could be happily locked away in the countryside, satisfied with choosing new drapes.
Nor would he wish to leave her there. What would be the point of marrying her if they were only to exchange letters? Not that she’d put up with it and nor would he.
“I see that would not suit,” the queen said. “Well, I suppose we hope for the best then. Let us pray this not very accomplished young woman has at least possession of cool nerves.”
Balthazar nodded. He was hoping the same thing himself.
*
Tattleton felt asif he were a blind man staggering along the edges of a cliff. He would go over the side eventually, but he could not know when! Worse, how had he even got atop a cliff? Whatwasthe cliff, exactly?
The ladies of the house were up to something, that much he knew. However, he did not have the first idea of what it could be.
He was convinced the pickpocket in the park had been arranged and somehow that young ruffian Shrimps had been involved. Possibly the Duke of Conbatten, too.
He had almost managed to convince himself to forget about it. After all, whatever the purpose, there had not seemed to be any repercussions from it. Perhaps it had only been one of the ladies’ ill-thought out schemes and now they had moved on to other ideas.
Tattleton had noticed that he’d not overheard anything further about a pickpocket, though Conbatten still appeared to be much talked about.
It had begun to seem as if he had worried himself for naught.
That was, until today.
The ladies and Miss Mayton had left in the carriage and there was something going on. They had left with a large sack. What was in it?
If that were not alarming enough, Charlie had come to him after the carriage had departed and informed him that Lady Viola and Lady Juliet had come down to the servants’ hall and trimmed fur from the dog, carefully placing it in a small brown paper sack.
