Chapter Fourteen
Landry paced hisdrawing room. It was extraordinary how things could seem to be going so well and then take a sudden turn down a dark and dangerous alley.
His mishap with the chamber pot at Sir Jonathan’s scavenger hunt had not seemed to become public knowledge, though sooner or later somebody would have gone in there and witnessed the devastation. He felt terrible about that, but at least nobody knew who did it.
He’d returned to the garden and to Lady Edith’s side and he’d admitted to the greasy potatoes for his discomfort. He’d not made any mention of his nerves being the other ingredient. Lady Edith had been stern in her advice about avoiding them in future. She explained that fried potatoes were notorious for taking a man down.
He had not known! She really did know so many handy pieces of information. And then, he did take comfort in being given a direction on greasy potatoes. He simply would not have them anymore. It was so simple.
The next day, he’d been very sanguine about going to his club. Until he got there. Why were so many gentlemen shaking their heads at him and turning away? He did not know. But, as it was proving uncomfortable and it would be even more uncomfortable to ask them why, he’d gone home.
When he arrived to his house, he discovered the cause of the frowns and turnings away. A letter from his aunt awaited him, andwhat a letter it was. Her letters were never pleasant, but this one was downright frightening.
Landry—
For shame! Never in my imagination had I thought that you would compromise a lady and cause such talk. This is what happens, I suppose, when you do not take on the advice of your relations. (Or let them in the door to give you that advice.)
I advise you to take on that counsel now. If you have not already done so, you must immediately repair to the Duke of Pelham, gain his approval, and get the banns read. Assuming, of course, he does not run you through on a green for this outrage.
The effrontery of compromising a duke’s daughter is not to be borne! You have dragged this family’s reputation through the mud and I fully expect that you will drag it back out of the mud and repair this situation. I expect that I will shortly hear of your engagement to Lady Winsome Nicolet. Otherwise, I suggest you leave Town—my boys are very put out about this situation and one old butler will not hold them back from visiting you to express their ire.
Clara Frogbottom
Would she send her sons to break into the house? Was this idea that he had compromised Lady Winsome widely spoken of?
Landry reflected back on his experience upon entering his club and was afraid itwasall over town. After all, how else would his aunt have heard of it?
Had the duke heard it? Had Manderbey heard about it? Had Lady Winsome herself heard of it? Had Lady Edith heard it?
Aside from his aunt, those four people would be exceedingly angry. He did not like people to be angry with him. Angry people were prone to say terrible things and threaten to do terrible things. He never could stand up against it.
How had such a story got started?
Landry rubbed his chin. He’d been gone for an extended time, had Lady Winsome also been missing for longer than expected too? Could it be that ridiculous? The dowager had encountered them in the corridor, had that lady talked about it? Had she made some speculation about it? It was outrageous if she had, as she must know of Manderbey’s interest in Lady Winsome.
But if not her, then who? The only other person he’d even got a glimpse of was St. John—he’d poked his head out of the ballroom, no doubt having repaired there to refill his wine from one of the sideboards.
Landry imagined he probably should not have run away from the dowager like a criminal. Perhaps that had made him look guilty of doing something. Hewasguilty of doing something, but not of compromising a lady. He’d compromised a chamber pot and was only trying to get as far away from the evidence as he could.
It was extraordinary that anybody would imagine he’d compromised a lady. He could barely speak to ladies. How on earth could somebody look at him and see a smooth rogue?
But it seemed that somehow that was what people thought.
He threw down his aunt’s letter and hurried out of the drawing room to locate his butler. The fellow could usually be found in the dining room, as he was a stickler for examining every piece of silver for a water spot. The footmen usually hid while he was checking, lest they get blamed for anything found.
As expected, there he was, examining a fork with a quizzing glass. “Marley,” Landry said, “you did such a bang-up job keeping my aunt and cousins from entering the house.”
“Thank you, my lord.”
“Now, I wonder, for the next days, could you keep everybody out of the house? That is, if anybody was to turn up, could you keep them out too?”
“Everybody?” Marley asked.
“Absolutely everybody. There has been an unfortunate circumstance arising and I wish to be incommunicado until things settle.”
Marley nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll see to it, my lord.”
“You really are a good sort of fellow, Marley. I ought to give you another raise.”
