Page 8 of The Pleasure in Persuasion

Because I wanted to.

Because I could.

But all he said was, “I don’t know. It simply happened.”

Penelope snorted. “Twaddle. One doesn’t simply fall into an affair, Freddy. It requires active participation and subterfuge.”

She was right, of course, but the affair with Serena truly had required little effort on his part. She’d been the pursuer, and she’d pursued him rather vigorously. He was flattered by the attention, and rather bored with his life, so he’d thought, Why not? He’d never bedded a married woman before, and Serena was a famed beauty, and rumored to be an enthusiastic bedmate—which proved to be true, by the by.

Of course, Penelope wouldn’t want to know that, nor did he care to tell her.

Indeed, he would rather fart in front of the Queen than talk about sex with his sister, favorite or not. The idea made him feel quite ill.

“I am aware you are something of a rogue, Freddy,” Penelope said quietly, “but even you must admit it was not well done of you. Mother wrote to me after the gossip reached her ears—did you know that? She blamed herself, and lamented her own behavior the whole letter through, asking where she went wrong with you. You’ve disappointed her dreadfully.”

“I know I have,” he said with a bite to his voice that Penelope did not deserve. “Robert already gave me this lecture, and I am well and truly contrite.”

His sister gave a disapproving sniff. “Are you?”

“I am.”

“And it won’t happen again?”

“It won’t,” he replied. “I promise.”

“Good. You are fortunate, you know, that you came away from this relatively unscathed. I should hate to think what might have happened if—”

“Mama! Mama!”

A shrill little cry rent the air, interrupting Penelope’s lecture, and Frederick turned as Willie called for his mother again, his voice a squeak as he struggled to break free from his sister, whose skinny arms were wrapped around his neck.

“Gretchen! Release your brother at once!” Penelope called out.

“But, Mama, he called me a smelly toad!” Gretchen’s voice was hot with indignation.

“You are a smelly toad,” Willie grunted, perhaps unwisely considering his position.

“I am not,” his sister argued, still holding onto his neck. “I do not smell, and if anyone resembles a toad, it’s you. With your toady eyes and fishy lips, it’s a wonder we haven’t released you back into the wild.”

Frederick had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing, though Penelope did not seem amused. Of course, as their mother, she undoubtedly bore witness to scenes like this every day, which must grow wearisome.

“Here,” Penelope said with a sigh as she handed Jasper to Frederick. “Do not drop him, please. I’ll be back in a moment.”

And off she went to mediate her older children, leaving Frederick alone with the chubby little drooler on his lap.

“Well,” he said, a bit awkwardly, “what shall we talk about, tiny man? Horses? Women? Politics?” He wrinkled his nose. “No. Not politics.”

Jasper blew a raspberry and reached his hands out to curl all ten of his undoubtedly sticky fingers around Frederick’s cravat. A beaming, gap-toothed smile plumped his round, rosy cheeks as he wrinkled the formerly-pristine white silk.

Frederick smiled, and he was not so hardened that he could not admit his heart melted a little. Jasper was an endearing little lad, and so were his siblings, as Frederick had discovered last night at dinner.

He’d spent very little time with his sister’s children over the years, a reality that was entirely of his own making. He’d always been too busy to visit, too wrapped up in his own life—his self-gratifying lifestyle—to bother with visiting his family. Somehow, he’d become this selfish, self-absorbed person he barely recognized, and he didn’t know if the change had been gradual, or if he’d always been this way and was only now seeing it.

Either way, he didn’t much like the man he was now or the life he’d been leading these last few years. He was weary of it—bored of it—and he wanted to leave it all behind.

He would leave it all behind, only he had no idea what to do with himself if he did.

He sighed, and shoved the troubling thoughts away for another day, turning his attention to his nephew again, who was now chewing on his cravat with vigor.