However, the dowager was too used to ruling the roost in Sussex as the reigning duchess, and found it irritating to find herself pushed out and a newly minted duchess rearranging things.
“There you are,” the dowager said. She was a sprightly and small lady with bright eyes. She was of undetermined years, as her reports of her alleged age varied widely depending on her purpose. She was very old if she wished to engender sympathy and she was improbably young when she had no need of it. She looked round the room and peered behind a chair. “No sign of them yet.”
One might think, from that sort of display, that his grandmother was going senile. Leland knew very well that was not the case though.
“No sign of what, pray?” he asked, tenting his fingers.
“Grandchildren. What else?”
Leland had been afraid that was what this performance was about. She’d been relentless on the subject for two years already. The last gambit had involved clutching at her heart and pretending she was onthe verge of expiring and lamenting that she’d not lived to see grandchildren.
When Leland had pointed out there was nothing he could do about it in her last moments on earth, she’d stalked off. He imagined she came up with these ridiculous hints in league with her lady’s maid. His grandmother and the pert Miss Wilson were thick as thieves.
“That’s it, then,” his grandmother said in her usual opaque manner. As he did not answer, she said, “I’m coming with you.”
“Coming with me where?” he asked. He had no invitations for the next week and then he would be off to Town.
“London. It will do me good and more importantly, it will do you good. I’ll dig up someone for you to wed so I can have grandchildren in the house before I die.”
Leland had been leaning back in his chair. He steadied himself. “What do you mean, you will go to Town? You never go to Town.”
“And now I do. Do I really have the energy to play matchmaker at this late date in my history? Who knows, but I’ve got to try. I’m going to Town. Arrange it all, Manderbey.”
With that, the dowager stalked off to harass somebody else. Leland supposed when she said, “Arrange it all,” she meant trunks pulled from the attics, carriages hired, her rooms in Hanover Square readied, cards ordered, the news sent out that she would be available for invitations, and who knew what else. His secretary would have to consult with Miss Wilson for a list and the discovery of precisely how many trunks she would bring.
None of that was the worrying part, though. She was intent on playing matchmaker. Unfortunately, when his grandmother was intent on a thing there was not much hope of stopping her. He was almost certain she would cause him trouble. She’d go poking around for willing ladies and she would find them, too. He did not flatter himself in any personal way, but he was well aware that his future wife would someday be a duchess. There were those ambitious ladies, and evenmore ambitious mamas, haunting the town who would be all too willing.
He did not necessarily condemn those ladies’ ambitions, he just did not wish it for himself. His parents’ marriage was a good one and had not been based on a transaction. He very much wished for the same.
Leland very briefly thought about refusing to take the dowager to Town. It was a very brief thought though. If she were left behind against her wishes she’d do something diabolical about it. Last year, he’d attempted to refuse to bring her along to a local horse race. She had countered by claiming that she would take out an advertisement in the newspaper outlining how her only grandson had abandoned her. As the son of a duke, he must at least keep his family’s name out of the newspapers.
She would go and she would make trouble. It did not even sound as if the dowager would be concerned with his personal happiness or be at all discerning in her hunt. She’d claimed she would “dig somebody up.” He thought he ought to be offended by that. He was not so unpleasant that a lady would have to bedug up.
The dowager suddenly poked her head back in the door. “I’ll need more money than I’ve got. I’ll need a whole new wardrobe—I’ve got to keep up with the times!”
Of course she needed more money. It seemed everybody in the world always needed more money, and they needed it from him.
