“I do see,” Felicity said, laughing. “But poor Grace—when it comes time for her season, or all my sisters that follow, I cannot imagine Lady Albright will send an invitation.”
“I wouldn’t allow your sisters to go to that blasted woman’s house even if she did invite them,” the duke said. “I’ve been clear as day on the matter—I want you all out of the house as fast as possible, but I don’t fancy seeing any of you mauled by a wild animal. No self-respecting gentleman would condone it.”
Felicity nodded, her father really could be sentimental on occasion.
“Speaking of getting you out of the house, what about Stratton? You could do worse, Almack’s was filled with ungainly young men lurching all over the place. At least that fellow has two things going for him. If you ever face a tiger again, he’s handy to have around. As well, I don’t know how his valet is achieving that knot, but I’d like to know it.”
“Oh, Papa, I do not know—”
“Nobody ever knows,” the duke said. “You don’t really know a person until they’re in the same house with you. How could itbe otherwise? That’s why marriage is known as the great roll of the dice.”
“Is it called so?”
“Well if it isn’t, it should be. Do you like the look of him?”
“The look of him, well… he is handsome enough. People say. In the usual way of things.”
“There you have it, then. He can get you away from a tiger, wears a very good knot, and you don’t run screaming from him when you see his face. You’ve got as good a chance as any couple.”
Felicity sat back. Did any of that make sense? She really did not dare take her father’s opinions as gospel, as he was very free with the truth. On the other hand, what would she really know about the gentleman she chose to wed? Perhaps ‘would save her from a tiger’ was more than she would know about most gentlemen.
And then, while she knew so little about Lord Rustmont, she knew he wouldnotsave her from a tiger. Though, she was still interested to hear his side of things. There was still the slim chance he might have a reasonable explanation for his disappearance. Though she could not think what it would be.
Still, to consider Mr. Stratton? She had disdained him from the first. Though, she must admit, she had found him handsome from the first too. Then, his actions at Lady Albright’s house had swayed her. And his attendance at dinner at her father’s house had swayed her still. He seemed to take her father in stride, which so many people failed to do. There was no point in denying she found him more genial than she had initially done.
Perhaps she did like him particularly. She must do, she thought about him all the time.
“Papa, how was it with you and Mama?”
The duke laughed long and hard. He caught his breath and said, “Your sainted mother came near to engaged to a baronfrom Hertfordshire. Lord Randall, was his name. I saw which way the wind was blowing and laid out the facts. I said, Lady Mary, do you not see that Randall is a blowhard of the worst sort with an unbendable walnut walking stick for a spine? He will expect his lady to be staid in the extreme and will not allow her to put a foot out of place. If you wedme, you might do any ludicrous thing you like and I’ll say nothing about it.”
“Did she wish to do ludicrous things?”
“I suspected it, that’s why I used that argument. How about this—one year, she decided she wished to know how to bake cakes. A duchess, in the kitchens, baking cakes? Who ever heard of it? Down to the kitchens she went. They were awful, by the by. Then, at another moment, she decided she’d rather be called Tulip, than Mary.”
“And you did not say anything about it?”
“I ate the cakes and called her Tulip. The Tulip gambit only lasted a year, and I admit to being grateful for it. I think delivering the twins set her off in some manner. Set me off too, come to think of it. Daughters—they never stopped coming. Nevertheless, she wanted to be called Tulip, and so Tulip it was. Best advice I can give you on the marriage front—let people be as they are. People don’t like to be constrained or bossed about.”
Felicity thought that was probably wise advice. After all, she did not like to be constrained or bossed about, so why should anybody else like it?
The world thought her father was the sum total of what they could see. But he did have hidden depths he allowed to peek out from time to time.
“Here we are,” the duke said, “let’s track down Lady Misery and give her the good news about where nine pounds in pence ended up, and that her protégé of a butler has run screaming from the house.”
And then there was the part the duke usually allowed people to see.
*
Percy had circledthe great hall of Lady Llewellyn’s house like a shark cruising a fisherman’s harbor. He was a rather awkward shark, actually. He supposed an actual shark would have the surrounding fish avoiding its eye and heading in opposite directions. As it was, it was turning out to be quite the trick to keep an eye out for Lady Felicity, without catching the eye of someone he’d rather not catch the eye of.
He’d studiously avoided Lady Marchfield’s eye, though she’d glared at him as if her discomfort was somehow his fault. He had no wish to speak to the lady, as what was one to say about her attendance at a cyprian party?
He’d equally avoided catching the eye of several hopeful young ladies. He did not imagine any of them were particularly interested in him. Rather, it would be a feather in their bonnet to claim Mr. So-and-So had been determined to waylay them at the earliest possible moment.
He was not in the mood to be anybody’s feather in a bonnet.
Finally, Lady Felicity was led in by her father. She was pretty as a picture. The duke was looking in exceedingly good spirits, which Percy assumed had left someone else encountering him in somewhat more depressed spirits.
