Charlie stood a bit straighter. “Your Grace, Mrs. Right has the situation well in hand. It seems Lady Marchfield is to pay off Mr.Wicket’s debts if he can last the season. So he’s been living in the wine cellar and keeping out of everyone’s way. Then he’ll be off.”
The duke laughed heartily. “Our Mrs. Right always has a plan. Lady Misery’s head will blow off her shoulders to discover she’s spent money on a fellow living in the cellar and doing nothing. Good fun. Can’t wait to see what happens next year.”
They went on rather jolly after that. Valor, having felt she’d saved her pride and insulted Lord Manderbey to her satisfaction, adopted a much better frame of mind. How long it would last, Winsome could not say. Her younger sister’s worst fear was coming to pass—she was to be left alone with no sister by her side. Thank heavens she had Mrs. Right and Sir Galahad to soften the blow.
Lord Manderbey reluctantly took his leave near noon, intending on returning with the dowager for dinner.
He was to go home to bathe and change and then meet the duke at Doctors’ Commons to arrange a special license with the archbishop. The solicitors would meet to work out the details of the contract the following day, though the duke was not at all worried about it. Manderbey had apparently assured him of a more than generous jointure and a ridiculous amount of pin money. And after all, the duke remained unaware of the gambling problem that never was.
Though the duke had warned Lord St. John that he would come to his house to ensure he’d gone, he sent Thomas to do it, as he was fully confident the fellow would have hightailed it out of London. It seemed that he had done so, as nobody answered the door and the house appeared closed up. Thomas had even walked down the mews and found the stables deserted. Lord St. John had gone far away and would go even farther still, all the way to Brazil.
As for Winsome, she took herself to the drawing room to fire off notes to her sisters that they must drop everything and come to dinner. She must have them all here. There was too much happiness to not have them here. Even Valor was much mollified once it wassuggested to her that she ought to make lists of what must be packed in her trunks for her grand tour of Torquay. Once that was done, Valor began to compose a list of pieces of wise advice she might deliver to the dowager in a gracious and charitable manner. She intended to monitor what that lady ate very closely, as the vicar had once said avoiding rich foods and strong drink was the best way to keep a body in good working order.
*
Leland had borrowedone of the duke’s horses to make his way home. He’d thought he’d have to send a groom to collect Apollo from St. John’s stables, but he was speedily informed that the horse had been returned in the middle of the night. The groom told him that they’d all been dead asleep and woken by a pounding on the door.
The stablemaster had answered the pounding and been exceedingly perturbed that Lord Manderbey’s horse was to come home without him. He’d demanded an explanation from the fellow holding the reins. At first he did not get one, but then he’d handed Apollo off to a groom and taken the fellow by his coat’s lapels and lifted him up. He may also have hinted that a person failing to explain why he brought a horse without its rider might expect to be severely injured if that person did not give over a full explanation.
St. John’s servant ended by explaining that they were packing the house up and leaving that very night and that Lord Manderbey was currently located in the Duke of Pelham’s house on Grosvenor Square. The stablemaster had gone to the duke’s house himself to check on the veracity of it and discovered it to be true.
Leland presumed his cousin had considered the duke’s threats and thought better of taking him on. His ship was to depart Falmouth in a month and St. John would have relocated there.
He handed over the duke’s horse to his groom to be returned toGrosvenor Square. Leland could already see the dowager peering out a window, lying in wait. He was ready for her. She could either fall in line or get out. If she wished to make trouble, he would personally put her in a carriage to the estate she’d once ruled. She could be bossed about by her daughter-in-law if that’s how she liked it. No amount of threats or histrionics would turn him from it.
Leland proceeded into the house and she met him in the great hall. “Well? What in the world has gone on?” she asked.
He leisurely made his way into the drawing room, flipping through the letters that had been left in the hall for him.
“Manderbey!” the dowager said. “Where were you last evening and why did St. John run away from the masque and why did all those Nicolet girls and the duke chase after him? I demand to know what’s happened.”
“You demand? Very well, if you are so insistent, though I think you will regret knowing it,” he said. “Your favorite grandnephew drugged me to keep me away from the masque, I was entirely incapacitated. He had the idea he would go to Lady Darlington’s house and somehow convince Lady Winsome to wed him and set off for Brazil, though never was there a more preposterous idea. The Nicolets came to the rescue and installed me in the duke’s house, availing me of their physician’s services.”
“I bet they’d liked to have you trapped there. The duke made it known he did not favor a match between Lady Winsome and St. John, though it is foolish in my view.”
“I see. You have managed to entirely ignore the part where St. John meant to do me harm.”
The dowager shrugged. “Was it really harm if he stopped you from taking an unwise step? His methods might be untoward but the end result…”
“The end result has been that I have engaged myself to Lady Winsome Nicolet. I leaned out a window and proposed to her, sheaccepted, and I gained the duke’s sanction. I will go with the duke for a special license this very afternoon. St. John is the author of this rumor about Lady Winsome, which was so ridiculous on its face that nobody with sense could believe it. The idiot has since left Town, lest he be forced to face his villainy and lose the ambassadorship.”
“Left Town?” the dowager asked.
He could practically see the wheels turning in her mind, looking for a way to salvage the situation. She would not get it, though. “The end result, Madam, is if you carry on as you have done, I will ship you home to the dower house you are meant to be living in, you can be bossed about by my mother, and I imagine she will be very happy to oblige. Oh, and do not bother with any absurd threats. I will not care if you do throw yourself on the road and shout that you are being abandoned to starve.”
“That was dramatic,” the dowager said, staggering back and collapsing in a chair. “Well now, if the rumor really is not true, I suppose we can face it down. Yes, I suppose we can.”
Leland could see very well that the dowager understood when it was time to make a retreat. He meant for her to make a very full retreat.
“We will dine at the duke’s house this evening. You will be delighted over the engagement. Further, you will never, ever, for one moment, cause Lady Winsome a minute’s distress. Understood?”
The dowager barely concealed rolling her eyes. “What sort of person do you take me for? Why should I cause anybody distress?”
Why indeed. “Furthermore, you shall stay here, in Town, until you receive word to come to Torquay. The duke and Lady Valor will accompany you there. This evening, we leave for the duke’s house at half past seven. Be prepared to be on your best behavior.” With that, Leland left his grandmother to contemplate her future.
His own future was assured and his grandmother could do what she liked about hers. Considering how intolerable she would find it tobe in the dower house in Sussex while the current duchess reigned supreme in the main house, he thought there was a very good chance she would cease causing him trouble. She was a rather fine old dowager when she was not causing trouble.
*
