Chapter Eleven
Quinn had justlaid down the letter from Lady Valor with a laugh. “She’s a bit of a corker.”
“Or something like that,” Roland said.
“Who is Lady Margaret?”
Roland shrugged. “I have no idea—an elderly relative, perhaps?”
“I suppose Lady Serenity remains unaware that her youngest sister has taken it upon herself to issue terms to the gentlemen in her sphere.”
“That is just it, though. Lady Valor certainly has the idea that I will ask and will be accepted. Might she not have got that idea from Lady Serenity?”
“Perhaps so.”
“That is a very good sign, then,” Roland said.
“So you will ask?”
“Well…I intend to, naturally.”
“What holds you back? And do not tell me it is some nonsense about her only having been introduced to the reserved marquess as of yet.”
“Is it not a concern, though? Last evening, she told me a story about a barn burning down. You can guess where my mind went.”
“To the horses in that barn,” Quinn said, “which would have caused you to recall Balthazar, your poor pony that had to be put down.”
“That is exactly it. I had a time of it keeping my expression neutral.”
“You know, that’s when it all started, this emotional flying up and down mountaintops. I’ve always wondered if that horrific scene did not permanently affect your mind in some way. It was not long after that you discovered that Clara, that housemaid, had been dismissed. You took that harder than you might have.”
Roland smiled. “I took it hard enough to steal fifty pounds from my father.”
“That you did. Never mind the father of her child was the local tavernkeeper who eventually married her. I reckon that fifty pounds set them up very well.”
Of course, that was true. Clara’s situation had not been as dire as he’d imagined. He’d thought if he did not do something, she would be left begging on the streets with a newborn baby in her arms. It had seemed imperative to act.
But the idea of a burning barn was not the only thing that had nearly set him off last night. “I had to avert my eyes while we watched the fireworks lest…well, what I say is that they were only fireworks. The way I sometimes react to things feels unnatural.”
Quinn shrugged. “Nothing unnatural about it. In any case, it seems to me that married couples encounter all sorts of surprises after the wedding. I distinctly remember your mother being a bit taken aback by what she termed your father’s snores that could wake the dead. They kept separate bedchambers, but she insisted she could hear it from her own. She’d spoken to her lady’s maid about it, wondering why the duke had not mentioned it beforehand.”
“I am not sure that is the same.”
“A lady could do worse than to discover her lord is rather a soft touch. I do not suppose you would deny her any amount of pin money or anything else she wished for.”
Roland considered it, as that was probably true. Too many ladies discovered just the opposite. Once the wooing was done, she might discover she’d wed a rather hard character. He was very afraid that anybody who agreed to wed Charles would discover precisely that.
“What do you plan to do about this letter, though? I do not suppose you intend on meeting this little lady’s demands.”
Roland laughed despite himself. “No, I certainly will not. I thought I might answer the letter, but then I decided that, for now at least, I’ll leave it.”
Quinn nodded. “Just what I would advise. If Lady Serenity has been made aware of this effrontery, she will be highly embarrassed. No need to pile on the embarrassment with an acknowledgement.”
Roland nodded. “I will just ignore it, as if it never arrived here at all.”
“Very encouraging that the young miss considers a wedding as a thing practically done, though.”
“Yes, it is very encouraging indeed.”
