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“My companion is in York visiting her sister,” Althea said. “If I admit I’m dwelling here alone, I’ll cause talk. When I show up at Lady Phoebe’s without Mrs. McCormack, Lady Phoebe will ensure the news is all over the county before my coach brings me home.”
He tossed the balled-up missive straight into the fire. “You’ve never mentioned having a companion.”
“Why would you assume I lack one? I’m an unmarried female living apart from my family. Of course I have a companion. Unlike you, when I ignore the rules, I do not endear myself to my neighbors. Drink your tea before it grows cold.”
“You’re not having any?”
Althea wanted a brandy, or several brandies, but drinking spirits to deal with frustration was a dangerous practice.
“Perhaps you’d be so good as to pour out for me, Your Grace?”
To her surprise, he prowled over to the low table, poured her a cup, added a dash of milk and a drizzle of honey, put a jam tart on the saucer, and brought it to her.
“My thanks. If you ever give up duking, you might do as a butler.”
He settled into the opposite wing chair. “Tell me about your companion.”
“Why?”
“Because when I ignore the rules, it’s endearing—according to you. When you ignore them, you are judged and ostracized.”
The tea was good. Hot and fortifying. “The last time I called on Lady Phoebe, she’d placed on the mantel in her formal parlor your refusal of her invitation to a musical soiree. At first, I thought she was making a point—she invited the local duke to her affairs, but did not invite me, a duke’s sister. I would be received if I called with Mrs. McCormack at my side, but my call would not be returned.”
“Be grateful. Lady Phoebe is insufferable.”
How did he know that?“She is an earl’s daughter, Your Grace. Insufferable or not, she is the hostess of highest rank in this area. I am unmarried, a relatively recent addition to local society, and without connections here. She is the citadel I must storm.”
Rothhaven aimed a look at Althea over the rims of the spectacles. “Youare the hostess in this area of highest rank. Your younger sister is the second-highest-ranking hostess. Lady Phoebe has been doubly deposed from top-hostess honors.”
If Rothhaven had tossed his tea over Althea’s skirts she could not have been more dumbfounded. Firstly, because he’d stated the obvious, and secondly, because she’d never noticed this herself. Could this be part of Lady Phoebe’s hostility? Sheresentedanybody who outranked her?
“I haven’t dared to invite anybody to anything,” Althea said, “lest they decline.”
“They would accept out of vulgar curiosity if nothing else.”
“I must correct myself. I invited you—my nearest neighbor—to an informal dinner. You declined my invitations twice.”
That retort merited a second visit to the tea tray, which Rothhaven relieved of another jam tart. “I decline everybody’s invitations.”
“Which is why Lady Phoebe had your regrets displayed on her mantel, like a mark of royal patronage. You ignore the rules and are nearly venerated for it. I observe the rules as carefully as possible and get nowhere. I want one-tenth the cachet you have with the neighbors when you don’t even show up.”
Rothhaven resumed his seat at the desk and uncapped the ink. “No, you don’t. My cachet, as you call it, comes at a high price. This is the reply you send, but wait until at least next week to have it delivered.” He scratched at a piece of foolscap while holding his tart in his left hand.
Althea rose to read over his shoulder:
On behalf of herself and Mrs. McCormack, the Lady Althea Wentworth accepts.
AW.
“I’m to refer to myself in the third person?” And in the somewhat formal third person, using the written version of address that would appear on the outside of a letter.
“Third person implies your correspondence secretary wrote the reply at your behest. My own steward very early in my tenure as the titleholder explained the niceties of this fiction to me, and it has served me well.”
“I have abehestand a correspondence secretary?”
He waved the paper gently to dry the ink. “Not to be confused with your amanuensis, whose responsibilities relate largely to managing the estate and handling communication with your London merchants and suppliers. You will have to copy this in a feminine hand, but make sure the writing differs in a few particulars from your natural penmanship.”
“In case I ever have occasion to actually write to Lady Phoebe as myself.” Rothhaven’s gift for strategy put Althea in mind of Quinn, who’d learned shrewdness early and well, and from a very hard school. “Do I beg off if Mrs. McCormack isn’t back before the date of the dinner?”
