Marley had appeared more than a little startled to see him at the door. “My lord, Lord Manderbey.”
“Let me in, Marley. I demand to see him whether he is awake or not.”
“He’s not actually here, my lord.”
Leland staggered back. “My god, he died?”
“Died? No, why would he die?” Marley asked.
“Because he was comatose and now he’s not here.”
“Oh, as to that, I am very sorry to say he never was unconscious, just frightened and hiding in his room. You know how he gets, thought you might wish to throw him across a room. But, it’s all come right now. He’s engaged to Lady Edith and they’ve gone off to see the lady’s father.”
Marley said all that as if it were the most natural thing in the world for a lord to pretend at being unconscious when he wasn’t. And then the even more startling news that Landry had somehow got himself engaged. How in the world had that happened?
Pushing off those questions, he said, “I really must speak to him. Has he said anything to you about how this ridiculous rumor that features him as the leading man got started?”
Marley shook his head. “He doesn’t know. He was on a chamber pot in Sir Jonathan’s billiards room for a half hour, greasy potatoes he says, then he encountered Lady Winsome in the corridor and shortly thereafter your dowager. He did not wish anyone to suspect he’d been the culprit of…whatever was left in the pot. So, he ran away.”
It was preposterous, and it sounded very much like something Landry would do. “When do you expect him to return?” Leland asked.
Marley looked at him as if it were an absurd question. “I do not know, my lord. That will be up to Lady Edith. She’ll decide.”
That also sounded right. He left and mounted Apollo. He took his horse to the park for a gallop as it was a fine day. As he did so, he tried to piece together everything he knew. Who was so bent on making trouble?
He’d thought the rumor that came out of the scavenger hunt had been just one more instance of bored matrons talking about whatever they could think up on scanty evidence. But the announcement of the banns, then the further announcement that somebody was intent on stirring trouble, put it in a different light.
If all of this was not simply coincidental, if it were part of a concerted effort, who was at the bottom of it?
Could it be St. John? Would he go so far? His cousin was irritated that he’d shut off the fountain of funds and had certainly expressed a wish to win Lady Winsome, despite how hopeless that was. Would he take active steps to get his way?
Leland was not certain he would. But then, he was not certain he would not.
He headed for home to get his horse and himself out of the unusually hot weather. He would change clothes and take another of his horses to visit St. John. He’d just come right out and ask him.
He might admit to it, he might deny it. Whichever way he went, Leland could express that it was to come to an end, regardless of who was doing it. He would send a message and that ought to be enough.
Then tonight, he would see Lady Winsome. She must have returned to Town by now. She must have plans to attend the masque.
If she did not, Leland would discover which sister Lady Valor stayed with and demand to know where in Kent Lady Winsome could be found. After that absurd letter she’d sent him, Lady Valor owed him a favor. He hoped it would not be necessary, but he’d shake the information out of her if it came to it.
He would see what happened this evening, and then he would know what to do. With any luck, on the morrow he would not besetting off for Kent, but rather in the duke’s study, looking for his approval for the match.
*
Mrs. Right feltshe’d flown a bit too close to the sun recently. She rarely made mistakes, aside from the several times that she’d imagined a gentleman was hurting one of her girls and then in answer to it she’d tried to ruin those men’s lives.
Lord Manderbey had seemed just such a rogue and she’d been determined to sway her girl away from him. The housekeeper was older and more seasoned and she knew that excessive gambling could only lead to heartache. How many times had she seen it, even outside of the high and mighty? The man would become gripped with it, always trying to recover what had been lost, and then losing more. He would be deaf to the pleas of his family until there was not a sixpence left to them. She could see how Winsome’s life would be destroyed and she wished with all her might that she could save her.
That had led her to take the rather dire step of announcing the banns.
But then Winsome had the idea that she would attempt to correct him in it. She became determined to rehabilitate him. That was even worse! Why did women forever think they were the cure when they always ended up being the casualty?
Still, what she’d understood from that idea was that Winsome would not be turned from the gentleman, despite the obvious risks. Once that girl dug her feet in there was not much anybody could do about it.
Winsome, of all people to connect herself to a rogue! She’d been so determined to avoid danger at all costs. Her head was filled with tales of innocent ladies, taken in by evildoers. She’d gone into the season suspicious and on her guard, lest she be one of the unfortunates.And then she changed her mind about it.
Mrs. Right had been apprised of her girl’s steadfastness to the gentleman after it was too late to recall the announcement she’d invented about the banns between Lord Manderbey and Lady Edith. She began to think it wasshewho would be the agent of Winsome’s grief. She had not been certain she could fix it.
