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‘Maybe so—but those eyes still work, darling, and you’d have had to be blind not to notice how striking she was.’
Hattie’s papa acknowledged that comment with a nod. ‘True. She was stunning.’ Then he winked at his wife. ‘Not as stunning as you, my dear, of course.’
Their mother blew him a kiss, not the least bit offended. ‘She also apparently had a charming way about her too, which I suppose only added to her appeal. Along with that air of mystery because none of us knew where she came from, so those were three irresistible things in her favour. Few men can resist a mysterious and seductive siren.’
‘All very interesting, Mama, but I am still none the wiser as to who Cora Marlow actually was.’
‘A courtesan.’ Annie’s matter-of-fact response earned her a disapproving stare from Freddie. ‘Oh, for goodness sake, Freddie, if you think Hattie, Kitty and I do not know what a courtesan is then you are thicker than I thought. If Mama is prepared to acknowledge Papa has eyes, then you should acknowledge that your delicate womenfolk all have perfectly working ears. And Mama is right, the gossip I have been privy to in the last few weeks has been fascinating.’
She turned to Hattie conspiratorially then, ignoring their brother completely. ‘According to Lydia Rycart, back in the murky days of yore—and by that I mean when our stick-in-the-mud brother was our age—Cora Marlow was the most lauded courtesan in the capital. She worked as a hostess at The Reprobates’ Club and apparently all the men wanted her.’
‘She worked for Jasper?’ That explained the connection. Sort of. But not the obvious grief she had seen in his expression when he had heard the bad news, any more than it explained who the little girl was and why he had such a palpable bond with her. But vocalising that would mean admitting that she had strolled to Covent Garden today on Jasper’s arm. An admission which, in his current irrational mood, would send her brother into a rage and get her banned from visiting the infirmary ever again without an armed guard.
‘Not just worked for him, if you catch my drift.’ Annie tapped her nose while Freddie looked about ready to combust. ‘She and he were...you know...’ She wiggled her dark eyebrows suggestively.
‘Lovers?’
Freddie lost his temper at Hattie’s comment, his cutlery clattering against the table as he slammed it down. ‘That most definitely is not appropriate conversation for the dinner table!’
‘Knowing what the word means and experiencing it with the same level of enthusiasm as you did at their age are two very different things, Freddie, I can assure you.’ Amused at her husband’s prudish reaction, Dorothea laughed. ‘So do sit down and stop spouting steam at the recounting of a bit of old gossip. It makes you a hypocrite when we all know you used to be the source of so much of it.’
‘Hear, hear,’ said Annie toasting their sister-in-law with her water glass. ‘Kitty has been living with us for months and despite all my best efforts, I still haven’t managed to tell her the half of it.’
‘We’re still only up to his university days,’ offered Kitty with a mischievous smile, ‘and that has been bad enough. I cannot wait to hear about his misspent bachelorhood at the Albany.’
‘There was one time at Almack’s...’ Before Annie launched into a story which veered the dinner conversation on a different path, Hattie held up her hand.
‘Can we return to the shameful escapades of our sainted big brother after we’ve exhausted the topic of Cora Marlow? I am still none the wiser as to why she was infamous beyond the fact that she had an affair with Jasper.’
‘Oh, it was so much more than an affair, dear. As I understand it,’ the Duchess of Avondale continued the story without skipping a beat, ‘Jasper was so besotted with her, he would hit the roof if any other man dared flirt with her. In fact, there were rumours of the threat of pistols at dawn when one randy buck chanced his arm with her. Jasper was as overprotective of Cora as poor Freddie is of all his womenfolk. Their liaison caused quite the scandal at the time, for we were all convinced he was going to break with tradition and marry her irrespective of society’s and his own family’s outright disapproval.
‘A courtesan had never married a duke in their family before and he never once denied any of the speculation about their impending nuptials in the papers. That was what earned him the 1808 accolade of “Society’s Most Scandalous” in The Times. That and the rapid rise of his outrageous club after his father had publicly cut him off. That particular year, you couldn’t read a scandal sheet without Jasper’s name front and centre. She was his mistress for a good year or so before she disappeared.’
‘Disappeared?’
‘Indeed. Poof...’ Her mother mimed an explosion. ‘Mysterious to the last. One day she was the talk of the ton and the next she was gone. Disappeared as quickly as she arrived, never to be heard from again. But then such is the precarious existence of a courtesan. Once her benefactor loses interest, she has to find another or starve.’
‘You think Jasper cast her out?’ Because that didn’t feel right to Hattie. He was undoubtedly a lot of things, but did not seem the sort to be so cruel and callous. The way he had held that child was all compassion and, to Hattie’s eyes at least, love. Whoever the little girl was, she was in no doubt he adored her.
‘Who knows?’ Her mother shrugged. ‘Mistresses come and go, and many by choice. Jasper wasn’t as successful then as he is now so there is every chance she found a wealthier man to keep her. We all assumed they had both moved on to pastures new as Jasper certainly cut a romantic swathe through the willing ladies after Cora left, and she certainly always had plenty of willing volunteers to warm her sheets. Do you know what happened to her, Freddie?’
‘I refuse to be drawn into this inappropriate conversation.’ Her brother speared a French bean with more force than was necessary. ‘Especially in front of the girls.’ Never mind that Kitty was eighteen and she and Annie were twenty and not two.
‘That means he doesn’t know,’ said his wife, giggling. ‘Or if he does, discussing it breaches some sort of rakes’ code that he agreed to when he used to be one.’
‘Honour among thieves,’ said Annie to get a rise out of him. ‘What a hypocrite you truly are nowadays, Freddie. Anyway—’ She turned back to Kitty with an evil glint in her eye. ‘Back to Almack’s and Freddie’s tryst with a lusty widow who was older than Mama...’
