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‘Oh, you mean my brother, the Regent! I do not know why he should oppose it. He is not at all a bad fellow, I assure you, whatever you may have heard to the contrary. There’s Charlotte to succeed him, and my brother York before me.You may depend upon it he thinks the Succession safe enough without taking me into account. But you do not say anything! You are silent! Ah, I see what it is, you are thinking of Mrs Jordan! I should not have mentioned her, but there! you are a sensible girl; you don’t care for a little blunt speaking. That is quite at an end: you need have no qualms. If there has been unsteadiness in the past that is over and done with. You must know that when the King was in his senses we poor devils were in a hard case – not that I mean anything disrespectful to my father, you understand – but so it was. We have all suffered – Prinny, and Kent, and Suss, and poor Amelia! There’s no saying but that we might all of us have turned out as steady as you please if we might have married where we chose. But you will see that it will all be changed now. Here am I, for one, anxious to be settled, and comfortable. You need not consider Mrs Jordan.’
Miss Taverner succeeded at last in drawing her hands away. ‘Sir, if I could return your regard perhaps the thought of that lady might not weigh with me, but surely she must be considered, cannot be put quite out of mind?’
‘Oh,’ said the Duke earnestly, ‘I was never married to her, you know. No, no, you have that quite wrong! There are no ties binding us, none at all!’
She could not forbear giving him a look of shocked reproach. ‘No ties, sir?’
‘You mean the children, do you?’ said the Duke eagerly. ‘But you will like them excessively! I do not believe there can be better children in the world.’
‘Yes, sir, indeed I have always heard – but you do not understand me! It is not on that count that I – pray believe, sir, that what you propose can never be! You must marry some lady of rank, some princess; you know it must be so!’
‘Not at all, not at all!’ declared the Duke, puffing out his cheeks. ‘There can be no objection, no hitch of any sort. You are not to be thinking this is cream-pot love, as they say, because, when I am married, you know, Parliament will make me a grant, and I shall pay off my debts, and be all right and tight.We shall do delightfully!’
Miss Taverner got up, and moved away from him to the window. ‘We should not suit, sir. I thank you for the honour you have done me, but do most earnestly beg you not to distress me by persisting in it. I cannot return your regard.’
The Duke looked very much crestfallen at this, and asked in a desponding voice whether her affections were bestowed elsewhere. ‘I thought it might be so; I was afraid someone might have been before me, for all I’ve crowded all sail to be first with you.’
‘No, sir, my affections are not engaged, but –’ ‘Oh well, in that case there is no need to be down in the mouth,’ said the Duke, brightening. ‘I have taken you too much by surprise, but when you have thought it over you will see how you will come round to it.’
‘I assure you, sir, my resolution is formed. For your friendship, which you have been so kind as to bestow on me, I have the highest value; but anything of a warmer nature – you understand me: I need say no more.’
‘No, no, where’s the use in talking?’ agreed the Duke. ‘I have been too quick; you are not well enough acquainted with me yet to give me an answer.’
Miss Taverner began to despair of making any impression on him. She turned. ‘It is useless, sir. Apart from my own sentiments, you must know that my guardian, Lord Worth, is resolved not to consent to my marriage while I remain his ward. He will not countenance so much as a betrothal. He has said it, and, I believe, means it.’
The Duke looked much struck by this, blinked rapidly once or twice, and began to walk about the room with his hands under his coat-tails. ‘Well, well! Bless my soul!’ he ejaculated.
‘What should he do that for? This is very odd hearing, upon my word!’
‘Yes, sir, but so it is. His mind is made up.’
‘The strangest fellow! However, though I am not one to make a great parade of my rank, I
hope, I am not quite anybody, and you may depend upon it Worth will sing a different tune when I see him. That is what I shall do; that will be best. I do not set a great deal of store by such things, you know, but I like to have everything ship-shape, and I will get Worth’s permission to pay my addresses. I should like to have it all done with propriety. Ay, that’s the best tack: I must see Worth, and then, you know, you can have no objection. And I’ll tell you what! I have a famous notion in my head now! I will have Worth come to spend Christmas at Bushey with us!’
He beamed upon her with such goodwill, and seemed to have so simple a pride in his famous notion that Miss Taverner had not the heart to protest further. She could only trust in her guardian’s ability to rescue her from her difficulties, and wish the Duke good-day with as much reserve of manner as was compatible with the civility she must feel to be his due. He impressed upon her once more that he should approach her guardian; she assented; and so they parted.
She was not without hope that a period of calm reflection might damp her royal suitor’s ardour; she had no notion of his hurrying off post-haste to call upon Worth, and had every intention of warning the Earl at the first opportunity of what was in store for him.
With this resolve in mind she was glad when, at Almack’s that evening, she perceived her guardian to be present. He was standing beside Lady Jersey when she came in, his handsome head bent to hear what her ladyship was saying, but he soon caught sight of Miss Taverner, and bowed.A very friendly smile brought him across the room to her side to beg the honour of a dance.
Judith, who was looking quite her best in Indian mull muslin draped with gold Brussels lace, expressed her willingness, but before going with him to take her place in the set which was forming, she put out her hand to draw forward Miss Fairford, who had come to the Assembly in Mrs Scattergood’s charge. ‘I think, sir, you are not acquainted with Miss Fairford. Harriet, you must permit me to present Lord Worth.’
Miss Fairford, who, from hearing Peregrine’s unflattering description of his guardian, already stood in considerable awe of him, was quite overpowered by his commanding height and air of consequence. She hardly dared raise her eyes to his face. He bowed, and said something civil enough to embolden her to peep up at him for a moment. Her soft eyes encountered his hard ones, which seemed to be looking her over with a sort of indifferent criticism. She blushed, and retreated again to Peregrine’s side.
Lord Worth led Judith into the set. ‘Do you like timid brown mice?’ he inquired.
‘Sometimes, when they are as good as Miss Fairford,’ she replied. ‘Do not you?’
‘I?’ he said, lifting his brows. ‘What a singularly stupid question! No, I do not.’
‘I don’t understand why you should call it a stupid question,’ said Judith with spirit. ‘How should I know what you like?’
‘You might guess, I imagine, but I shall not gratify your vanity by telling you.’
She gave a start, and shot a quick, indignant look up at him. ‘Gratify me! That would not gratify me, I assure you!’
‘You take too much for granted, Miss Taverner. What would not gratify you?’
