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“I am a perfectly respectable mother,” Esme protested. “I see William at proscribed times, and I do not allow him to overtake my every waking moment.”

Helene forbore to point out that a set of childish fingerprints, seemingly dabbed with blackberry jelly, had made an imprint on Esme’s exquisite gown. Nor did she remind her friend that only last month Esme had left a dinner attended by the Regent himself, on receiving a message from William’s nanny saying that he showed signs of a cold.

“Just tell me a few details,” Esme urged, her eyes shining with curiosity. “I have not been able to sleep wondering what’s happening to you.”

Somewhat to Helene’s relief, Gina burst into the room at that moment. “I’m so sorry to be late,” she cried. “I simply could not get out the door.” She fell into a chair. “Don’t pause for courtesies, Helene! What about the opera singer? What is it like, living in the house? Can you bear it?”

Her two friends were looking at her with expressions of identical curiosity, as if she were a calf with two heads or some other miracle of nature. “It’s not so terrible,” Helene said cautiously.

“I’ve done nothing but think about it, and I’m fairly sure that I would have to flay her,” Esme said with frank bloodthirstiness. “Is she simply awful? What does she look like? Is she one of those brandy-faced women whom one sees around the Exchange, or the fancy articles who haunt Vauxhall?”

“Actually, Miss McKenna is not at all like a common lightskirt,” Helene replied. “She’s quite beautiful, and I have to admit that if I had the faintest particle of feeling for Rees—and of course I don’t—I would be jealous of her looks.”

“How can you bear it?” Gina asked wonderingly. “I know you’re estranged from Rees, but he’s still your husband. Even if I were separated from Cam for twenty years, I could not see him nuzzle up to some light woman in my presence without feeling murderous.”

Helene shrugged. “They don’t show any signs of intimacy in my presence.”

“Well, that’s quite considerate of her,” Esme said, sounding rather surprised. “Frankly, I would think that she too would find this a difficult situation. After all, she’s been living in that house for what, three years?”

“She knows which side of the bread is buttered,” Gina said. “Why should she feel any distress, considering that she still lives in the house? Helene is obviously a mere visitor—to her own house!”

Esme nodded. “Have you found a moment to offer her a settlement, Helene?”

“No,” Helene said slowly. “I’m not sure I would feel comfortable doing so, to be honest. She is oddly ladylike.”

“Pooh!” Esme said. “She’s no lady!”

Helene was silent. The awkward truth was that she was only beginning to feel pricks of jealousy now. And they didn’t have anything to do with the fact Lina was sleeping in the vicinity of Rees, either. It was her voice. She had music.

“I told Sebastian about Rees keeping his mistress in your bedchamber regardless of your presence in the house,” Esme was saying, “and he said that if you would like him to draw Rees’s cork or worse, he’d be happy to do so.”

Gina was nodding. “I haven’t told Cam, because he hasn’t the self-control. He would set off immediately to pummel Rees. But just let me know.”

“No, no!” Helene said alarmed. “Rees is going to be the father of my child. Besides, that would lead to someone finding out where I am. Harries has been informing all callers that I am taking the waters in Bath.” She turned a little pink. “Apparently the Earl of Mayne has called seven times.”

“Didn’t you get the note I forwarded to you?” Gina said, with an impish grin.

“Yes, and I brought it with me,” Helene said, pulling a note from her reticule. “Listen to this: I understand you are in seclusion, perhaps for as long as six weeks. Surely you are in need of diversion? I am entirely at your service.”

“What a shame you can’t meet Mayne,” Gina said. “It must be utterly deflating to be in the same room with the opera singer, if she’s all that exquisite. Mayne only stayed in the garden with me for a few minutes, while requesting your address, but I will admit that his compliments were quite amusing.”

“The man has exquisite finesse in all areas, including the bedroom,” Esme put in. “So Helene, have things improved at all on that front in the past nine years?”

Helene blinked. She had never gotten used to Esme’s frank discussion of matters that she had been brought up to ignore. “I’ve told Rees, as per your instructions, that we have to do it every day, and he doesn’t seem to find the prospect too insufferable.” Then she remembered something. “His mistress made a joke out of his only needing seven minutes of time with me.”

“You and she are joking together?” Esme said, clearly stupefied.

Helene felt a flash of embarrassment. “I was rather inebriated at the time.”

Gina patted her knee. “If I were you, I would stay inebriated for the entire month,” she said. “And if Rees’s mistress is cracking jokes about his poor performance in bed, I think we can assume that his abilities are not going to improve in the next few weeks. It’s a true shame you can’t carry on a flirtation with Mayne. At least he would keep your spirits up.”

“I don’t see why I can’t meet him if I wish to,” Helene said.

“It’s not worth the risk,” Esme said. “You would be worse than ruined if anyone discovered the truth. I really can’t imagine the scandal.”

“I’ll think about it,” Helene said, unconvinced. She was not truly interested in a flirtation with Mayne, but whenever she thought about Lina’s voice it gave her a queasy sensation…perhaps a few of Mayne’s practiced compliments would restore her confidence. “Are you both free to make up a party to Vauxhall this evening?”

“Alas, no,” Gina said with real regret. “Cam and I are dining with a delegation from Oxford. I’m certain it will be excruciatingly tedious, but Thomas Bradfellow from Christ Church is making my brother a professor, so we couldn’t possibly miss it.”