With that, they left Lord Landry considering what questions about her herds he might pose to Lady Edith.
*
Leland held hisarms up while his valet removed his shirt. What a palaver. The beginning of the ball had been perfection, but then it had all gone downhill from there.
He’d watched St. John dance with Lady Winsome and he’d not liked what he saw. His cousin could be very smooth mannered when he put his mind to it.
Then he’d seen his grandmother and he’d not liked what he saw there either. She was blatantly drinking from a flask at the edges of the ballroom, accompanied by the Duke of Pelham.
Then he’d seen that Landry had taken Lady Winsome into the dining room and he’d not liked what he saw there. Why was Landry to be giving carriage rides from court and taking the lady in to dine just because they’d met at an inn?
And finally, he’d himself taken in Lady Edith. Why the lady grilled him on every subject he mentioned, he did not know. The lady had a lot of opinions. Why was he to justify not keeping pigs at his estate in Hertfordshire? He’d been forced to explain that he was rarely there, as he preferred Torquay, which was not a working farm. She’d not beensatisfied with that answer and noted that if he simply hired a pig man he would not need to be on the scene. Then he’d had to go into the details of having a tenant who raised pigs as their sole source of income and he would not like to cut into the fellow’s profits. She’d still not appeared wholly satisfied, but there really was nothing else to say. Talking to Lady Edith was like facing a massive wave in a small boat—the encounter could not be stopped and one had better just hold on.
He’d finally extricated himself and then had to give his arm to his grandmother, who almost certainly was in her cups. Just now, she was currently lingering outside his firmly locked door despite having been delivered into the hands of Miss Price when they arrived home.
“I only say,” she said from the corridor, “the duke is great fun and Lady Winsome is pretty.”
“Ignore her,” Leland said to his valet, Richards.
“How am I to get out, though?” Richards whispered, glancing at the door.
“Go out through the wardrobe door to the corridor and then run, she will not be able to catch you. I’ll lock it after you go, so she is not able to catchme.”
“But on the other hand,” the dowager said, “I like Lady Edith’s homegrown country sense. Is she elegant? Well maybe not, but she’s got wide hips! They come in handy for babies.”
Richards staggered just the smallest bit to hear Lady Edith’s hips mentioned.
“I’ll have my best coat on the morrow for the duke’s dinner,” Leland told him. “The new dark-blue wool.”
“Now there is also Lady Finella—do not rule her out!”
“Is there brandy in the other room?” Leland asked.
“Yes, my lord, the decanter is full.”
Leland nodded. Once he’d arrived to the house and ascertained how difficult his grandmother planned on being, he’d had a door put in, leading from his bedchamber to a guest room. It had since beenredone as a library of sorts and had a large bolt added to the inside of the door leading to the corridor. He would retreat in there to escape this current onslaught of opinions.
“Now I think common sense will tell you,” the dowager said, “that this season is chock full of suitable ladies—pick one!” There was a long pause, then his grandmother said, “Miss Price says I have to be abed now. We will pick up this conversation in the morning.”
Leland heard them make their way down the corridor, Miss Price issuing low encouragements and his grandmother repeating, “But it had to be said.”
She wished to pick up the conversation in the morning. They certainly would do. Leland was prepared to lecture her severely on several fronts. Drinking at Almack’s, presuming to manage him, and loitering at his door in the small hours of the morning. He would conclude with how she was to comport herself at the duke’s dinner on the morrow. She was to be circumspect. He would not wish Lady Winsome to turn away from him because he was in possession of a particularly strange relation.
Hopefully, a stern lecture would have more effect than all the stern lectures that had gone before.
He picked up a book and took it into his snug new library. He’d written to Lackington & Allen requesting they send over their most popular gothic novel. It was one of Lady Winsome’s interests and would be something in common to mention on the morrow.
Leland poured himself a brandy, threw himself onto the leather sofa he’d had brought in, and looked it over.
Mr. Lackington had sent over a book titledGloaming at Glenford Cross. From the description, it seemed a vicar’s daughter disappeared after walking through a dark wood at sunset. The villagers had begun to suspect that the newly arrived inhabitant of Werely Castle might be at the bottom of it as several swore they heard screams at night coming from that direction.
He could not imagine what Lady Winsome saw in it, but he would be prepared to talk about it.
*
Mrs. Right feltpressed from all sides. Whoever was taunting them inside the house had seemed to redouble their efforts. It was as if she were being mocked for changing the locks and imagining that would end the problem. This morning, there was a half-empty teapot sitting on the servants’ hall table. She had touched it and it was cold, so it had been there for some hours. There were reports of things all over the house being moved and it had become hard to tell what was real and what was imagination. Had the duke forgotten he’d left certain papers out? Had Reynolds, the duke’s valet, accidently misplaced so many of the duke’s neckcloths? What had happened to the silver salt cellar?
Who was doing it? Where were they hiding? Why were they hiding? What was the purpose of it all?
