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‘It would be most interesting, I am sure, but I will be much engaged with our estates for some time. My grandfather was not able to give them the attention they required.’ Which was code for, Spent all his time and money drinking, gaming and wenching while the place crumbled about him. By the look of it the other men understood exactly. They had probably known the old devil, Ashe thought.
‘Dinner is served, ma’am.’
The maid must be their only upstairs servant, Ashe concluded as the party paired up to go through. He was the highest-ranking male guest so Phyllida took his arm and showed him to the seat at her right hand. He was flanked by Lady Hardinge, but with such a small party it was easy to talk to everyone and no one seemed to have any inhibitions about conversing across the dining table.
‘You are in town for the Season, Lord Clere?’ Lady Hardinge enquired.
‘My mother wished my sister to come out this year and, arriving from India as we have, there is much to arrange as you may imagine. Staying in London for the Season seemed sensible. But I am merely an appendage to the ladies of the household, I can hardly be said to be doing the Season.’
‘I think you will find you are, whatever your intentions,’ Lady Blackett said with a chuckle. ‘What a fortunate thing that with the sea voyage and so forth you are out of mourning. I imagine that you too will have matrimonial ambitions, Lord Clere. From what I hear, the gossip is all about the dashing new bachelor who has joined the Marriage Mart.’
‘I have certainly not done that, ma’am. It sounds quite alarming.’ He must find himself a wife, true, but he had no intention of making himself a target.
‘Terrifying,’ Hardinge agreed in a stage whisper, causing general laughter. ‘Avoid Almack’s like the plague, is my advice,’ he added.
‘But have you not read Pride and Prejudice, Lord Clere?’ Phyllida enquired. When he shook his head she quoted, ‘“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” All the matchmaking mamas will have you in their sights already, I fear.’
‘That sounds decidedly dangerous and I will have to take evasive action,’ he said. ‘I have been stalked by tigers before now, so hopefully my skills will enable me to escape.’
‘You will have to succumb sooner or later, Clere,’ Fransham observed with a grin. ‘I used to be just as skittish myself, but now I am beginning to see the benefits of matrimony.’ He did not glance at Miss Millington as he spoke, but she coloured faintly.
‘I expect I shall, too,’ Ashe agreed. ‘But I prefer to make my own choices and not to be hunted down by terrifying matrons in search of a son-in-law with a title and all his own teeth.’
‘We must stop teasing poor Lord Clere,’ Phyllida said amid the general laughter. ‘He has come to London expecting stately banquets and refined conversation and finds himself at a small dinner party with frivolous friends.’
‘But charming frivolous friends,’ Ashe corrected her. He caught her eye as he spoke and smiled, thinking how warm her brown eyes were and how delightful she looked when she was happy.
She became serious as he looked at her. Her eyes widened and he had a sudden fantasy of her lying beneath him, looking up with fathomless eyes and parted lips. Oh, yes. Spread on a coverlet of green silk, gasping her pleasure as I lick every inch of those pale curves. The thought of her skin against his, ivory against gold, was an erotic provocation all of its own. Why had he been undecided for a moment about his intentions towards her?
His thoughts must have heated his gaze, for Phyllida blushed and turned to the maid. ‘That will be all for the moment, Jane. I will ring when I need you.’
She spoke to Lord Hardinge on her left about an opera he had missed the previous week and conversation turned to the theatre and the arts. Ashe joined in the ebb and flow of talk, but mainly listened, absorbing information with the same focus he had employed when on a mission for his great-uncle.
Anything about this new world was useful, but he found himself listening more and more to Phyllida as the meal progressed. She was an excellent hostess, keeping conversation flowing and drawing everyone in with the skill of an accomplished matron. Her own contributions revealed an interest in cultural matters that seemed far reaching and well informed. One would not be bored after the lovemaking. She would not be a mistress from whose bed one hurried.
There, he had thought the word. Mistress. A long-term relationship, not the brief liaisons he had been making do with since Reshmi died. And this time he was forewarned not to become emotionally involved, nor to let his partner in passion become so, either. Reshmi had been his first, his only, love and that had hit him hard. Now he was more experienced, was on his guard against that kind of devastation to his heart, and it would not happen again.
‘They say there is a consignment of remarkable Chinese porcelain just arrived,’ Sir Peter said, cutting into his musings. ‘But whether that is rumour or fact I cannot establish. Perhaps it will be offered at auction, but as far as I can tell none of the big houses are handling it.’
‘It does exist and is very fine, but the shippers are intending to sell direct to dealers from the warehouse,’ Phyllida said. Everyone looked at her with polite astonishment. ‘That is… I heard someone discussing it at the Trenshaws’ musicale the other day and complaining that by the time the public sees the items they will have increased in price considerably.’
‘Just for a moment I had visions of you inspecting the goods in some ghastly warehouse down at the docks, Phyllida dear,’ Lady Blackett said with a chuckle. ‘I know how much you like fine porcelain, but wouldn’t that be a scandal!’ She laughed and everyone joined in. Ashe thought Phyllida’s amusement was forced and her brother’s smile was tight, but no one else seemed to notice.
‘And dangerous,’ Ashe said. ‘From what little I saw of the docks area, it is no place for a lady.’
This time the look Phyllida directed at him aroused no fantasies of lovemaking. She looked as if she wished she had a hatpin to apply to his anatomy. ‘Some unfortunate women must carry on their business in that area, Lord Clere. If it is dangerous for them, it is because they are at the mercy of the men who lurk there and who try to take advantage of them.’
‘Yes, but working women,’ Sir Peter said. ‘Many of them no better than…’ He seemed to recollect that he was in mixed company and not making a speech in the House. ‘Not refined ladies, is what I meant. What a scandal it would be, to find a gentlewoman in such an area.’
There was a general murmur of agreement before, to Ashe’s surprise, Miss Millington said, ‘I believe many ladies support charities in the East End of London and go there themselves to give succour, even to the unfortunate women to whom Sir Peter referred.’
That turned the conversation to a discussion of charities and the best way to support the deserving poor. Ashe aroused considerable interest by describing the sadhus who, clad only in a sacred thread and a thick smearing of ashes, lived on the offerings of passers-by.
‘Naked? But surely ladies cannot avoid encountering such men? Is it not a public outrage?’ Lady Hardinge asked.
‘In India nudity may be considered shocking, erotic, aesthetic, practical or religious, depending entirely on context,’ Ashe explained. ‘My mother or sister would think nothing of dropping a few coins into the begging bowl of a naked sadhu, but they would be shocked to find a member of the household walking about without a shirt, for example.’ They still looked dubious. ‘Have the ladies here never viewed naked Classical
statuary and admired it for its aesthetic qualities?’
