Page 13 of Her Passionate Duke

“He’s an orphan!” said Linnet.

“Perhaps, but you can’t be sure of that. And he’s making quite a nice living off just sweeping the dirt away from the feet of passers-by. I only wish I could be so well-compensated for doing so little!”

“Don’t listen to him, dear,” said Lady Caroline. “He’s just being offensive on purpose to try to provoke you, because it amuses him or because — because he likes the attention.”

“Well, he’s doing a fine job of it,” said Linnet, giving Lord Charles a hard stare. “I wish I lived in your world where the decent and virtuous prosper and the poor only suffer because they deserve to! If you had even an ounce of sympathy for the suffering of others—”

The heat had risen in her face, and Linnet’s voice trailed off. She knew that it was beyond inappropriate to be a guest in another person’s house and then lecture them like this, but she couldn’t help it. Lord Charles’ opinions were vile; and, what was worse, they seemed to be opinions which were widely shared amongst the ton.

“Are you still planning to visit the Orphanage today? If so, perhaps you should go soon – you wouldn’t want to arrive there too late in the day.” said Lady Caroline, patting her on the shoulders. “And it’s time for my pianoforte lesson soon.”

Linnet was intelligent enough to know that she was being nudged to the door. But, suddenly, she didn’t have the courage to go to the orphanage that day. And it was already quite late, after all. Whilst she had her maid, and a footman, with her, she still did not feel very brave – she had truly hoped for Lady Caroline’s company.

“Actually, I think I will leave the orphanage for tomorrow – or the day after, but I hope that you’ll both come to the Duchess of Grantsham’s dinner on Thursday next. I’ll have a thing or two to say there!”

Lord Charles laughed softly, leaning negligently against the mantel, and enjoying the warmth of the fire.

“A word of advice before you leave - when someone makes a statement which upsets you, next time, try to respond with something other than incoherent outrage.”

“Pardon?”

“What I mean is, your passion for helping the orphans is commendable. But you’re never going to persuade anyone if your argument amounts to nothing more than yelling, ‘You’re wrong! You’re heartless and wrong!’ again and again. Try to form a real rebuttal.”

Linnet didn’t know what to say. After antagonising her for the last twenty minutes — apparently just to see how she would respond — he was now presuming to offer her advice on how to win arguments.

“Don’t condescend,” she said. “I don’t need your help.”

“No condescension was intended,” said Lord Charles. “But I will say this: in all the years I’ve known you, that’s the first time you’ve ever stood up to me. I’m sincerely impressed.”

“Charles is right,” said Lady Caroline in a conciliatory tone. “I’ve never seen you raise your voice at anyone like that before. It was — well, it was almost frightening.”

Linnet could see the sincerity on their faces and felt strangely flattered. She was beginning to regret that she had ever raised her voice at Lord Charles.

“Well, I won’t make a habit of it. But there are certain things which should never be said or done in front of me, or even worse things could happen.”

“And you would be completely justified in your anger,” said Lady Caroline. “With all the pressure your mother has placed on you, I sometimes think you don’t get angry enough.”

“What do I have to be angry about?”

“I think that, when you realise the answer to that question, you’ll no longer have trouble standing up for yourself.”

Lady Caroline refused to say any more than that, and within a few minutes had gone to her pianoforte lesson, leaving her words still echoing in Linnet’s mind.

***

Jeremy considered the papers on his desk. If they were to buy the building next door to St Agnes’ and extend the orphanage, they would need far more money than he had at first expected. But his man of business had laid it all out clearly. All the more reason to make next week’s fund-raising evening a success.

Just that morning, his mother had been in alt about the fact that the Prince Regent had actually sent a donation, although he had not accepted the invitation. The fact that he had shown approval of the event made it far more likely that various people would donate. Now, if that was the only thing he had to worry about….

He was almost glad that the Prince Regent would not be attending – for, if the Prince Regent did attend, it would complicate matters rather dramatically – and Jeremy, and those he worked with, did not yet have enough information to be certain of what they would need to protect the Prince Regent from – if, indeed, the threat was even real.

He scanned the page of calculations again, and grimaced. If he had to, he would fund it all out of the Grantsham estates – but he would prefer to extract as much as possible from the doyens of the ton if he could.

Growing up without one parent had been bad enough – no child should be left without either parent, and without help.

Chapter Six

In the end, it was almost nightfall by the time Linnet left Lady Caroline’s, and the western sky burned russet from behind a thick blanket of smog.