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CHAPTER21
“Forgive me for saying so, Your Grace, but you are in a rather dull mood this evening,” Frederick said laconically, crossing one leg over the other at the knee. He swilled his port around in the deep glass and eyed Henry curiously.
Henry cleared his throat and sat up straighter in his chair. “No offense taken at all. I feel as though I should apologize. I’m not myself presently.” Not a second had elapsed in the last few hours in which Henry did not think of Eleanor.
That blasted cat. She loved it. She cherished it. She made sure even when she couldn’t keep it any longer that it went to a nice home. And how did it repay her? It left a deadly scratch down the length of her arm.
The entire ride home in the wagon, Henry had fretted over Eleanor’s cat scratch, and she had very matter-of-factly explained to him that she would be just fine. She described very carefully how she planned to clean and dress the wound, just as soon as they got home. She did her best to assuage Henry’s fears on the subject. But he was beyond consolation.
Every time he thought of that deep gash on her arm, he wanted to rise from his chair and race to her chambers. All throughout dinner, he had stared at her, watching for even the slightest sigh of discomfort or a look of consternation to cross her face. But Eleanor had been her normal self.
Henry looked over at Frederick now, who sat lazily in the sturdy green leather chair.
The last place I want to be right now is here with Frederick.
Frederick, who had taken one look at the bandage on Eleanor’s arm and said snidely, “Got into another spot of trouble, did we?” He hadn’t even seemed concerned and that annoyed Henry greatly.
Frederick took a long sip of his drink and then placed the glass on the table that sat between the two gentlemen. “I am glad we have a moment like this. I have been wishing to discuss matters with you privately, but I did not want to do so in front of the ladies at dinner.”
Henry could barely tolerate these moments after the meals when he was forced to leave Eleanor’s side and sit with Frederick. But, as it was tradition, he’d been obliged to do so. Especially today, Henry wanted to stand at once and exit the room, but Frederick’s words stilled him. He was intrigued that there should be something of consequence Frederick wanted to discuss.
Henry nodded his head. “Whatever you wish to say, please feel free to do so now.”
Frederick put both feet firmly on the floor then, and he leaned forward so that his elbows were perched lightly on his knees. His green eyes which alternately looked mischievous and merry now were wide and full of hope.
“I have fallen in love,” Frederick confessed in a breathless whisper.
“Is that so?” Henry asked politely, taking a small sip of his port.
“Indeed,” Frederick replied, a slow smiling spreading across his face. “She is lovely and charming. I don’t mind admitting, that she is the most beautiful creature I have ever beheld.” He lowered his head modestly then and added, “I have secured her love as well, and we wish to be wed at once.”
Henry lifted an eyebrow. He put his glass of port on the table between them. “So soon? If you have only just met the lady, as I’m assuming you have, what’s the rush to marry?”
Even as Henry said the words, he remembered the hasty way he and Eleanor had arranged their marriage.
But this is different. Frederick couldn’t possibly have the need to marry someone so quickly, could he?
“I haven’t just met the lady. I’ve known her for a great many years. It was only recently that I came to learn she reciprocated my affections and wishes.”
“Indeed?” Henry asked, and he searched his mind, trying to recall any eligible ladies someone in the household might have spoken of recently. His grandmother was always prattling away about one of the ladies of theton, and the Dowager Countess of Barrow wasn’t much better. Between the two of them, they had run through the gossip in no time.
Henry didn’t pay very careful attention when the two ladies got to whispering, but he also couldn’t avoid hearing their conversations either. He thought back on the matter now, scrunching his forehead in concentration, but he couldn’t recollect any one lady standing out as someone who might have been a match for Frederick. “May I ask who the lady you wish to marry might be?”
Frederick’s green eyes flashed wildly then, and he scooted even closer to Henry. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “My lady is Rosalin Button.”
“Rosalin Button?” Henry stroked a finger across his chin. “I might be mistaken but isn’tRosalin Button also Lady Clay. She’s already…”
Before Henry could finish his thought, Frederick smiled wickedly and began nodding his head enthusiastically. “Yes, yes, she is one and the same. Rosalin ButtonisLady Clay. She’s already married, but that alliance should not stand between us much longer.”
“Whatever do you mean?” Henry asked, now sitting forward in his chair as well.
“Lady Clay has assured me that her husband is very ill—on his death bed, even. She says in just a matter of days, he will pass, and she will be free to wed again.”
“But…” Henry began slowly, “I hate to point out the obvious, but he’s not dead yet.”
Henry knew as well as the next gentleman that married women had affairs all the time. He wasn’t a bit surprised that someone as beautiful and provocative as Rosalin Button had taken an interest in Frederick. He was good-looking, and when he wasn’t being an outright brute toward Eleanor, Henry could see how other women could find him charming. Plus, as Eleanor’s closest friend, Rosalin would have had many opportunities to spend long afternoons with Frederick. But even though Henry could see how the two might have been drawn to one another, he couldn’t see how they could marry.
“Yes, yes,” Frederick said frantically, “he’s not deadyet, but I am very hopeful that he should be soon.”
