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“That can readily be remedied.”
“—and for another, your health is unequal to the strain of a London Season.”
“Nonsense, I have never been better.”
“What is more,” pursued Delagarde, ignoring these interpolations, “I have not invited you to remain here above the few days you intended.”
Lady Hester suddenly clapped her hands together. “Which reminds me. I have not brought near enough with me for a whole Season. My abigail will have to go down to Berkshire at once. Oh, and you will have to open up all the saloons. We cannot receive morning callers in the drawing-room, and if we are to give a ball—”
“A ball! Let me tell you—”
“Or, no. It is too late to secure a suitable date. A small party, perhaps, and meanwhile we will introduce Maidie quite quietly—”
“You cannot introduce her in any way at all. Good God, I will not be sponsor to a lady looking as Maidie does! I should lose all credit with the world.”
“You are very right.” Lady Hester laid an approving hand on his arm. “Her appearance will not do at all. I had not thought of it in all this excitement. She must be properly gowned. I shall see to that at once. Maidie cannot object to acquiring new clothes. You need have no fear, Laurie. I will make sure she does not disgrace you.”
“If her conduct today is any indication of her company manners, there is little hope of preventing that.”
But Lady Hester was not attending. “We will not make too obvious a stir, I think, for that may defeat the purpose. A soirée at the start of next month will serve admirably. At first, though—”
“Aunt Hester!”
“—we shall make it our business to call upon all the leading hostesses. As Maidie’s sponsor, you will of course accompany us.”
“If you think I am going to dance attendance on that cursed wench morning after morning—”
“Laurie, of what am I thinking?” interrupted his great-aunt, unheeding. “The servants! We shall never manage with this skeleton staff. You must send to Berkshire immediately. Or, stay. Lowick may go down himself and make all the necessary arrangements.”
“Aunt Hes—”
“Gracious, there is so much to be done! I must see Lowick immediately. He and I will put our heads together, and—”
“Aunt Hes, will you, for God’s sake, attend to me?”
She stopped in mid-stride, and looked at him with an air of surprise. “Yes, Laurie?”
“Aunt Hes, stop! I will not—I have no intention—Oh, good God, I think I am going mad! Aunt Hes, if you bring that girl to live here, I promise you I shall remove!”
“Nonsense. Move out of your own house? Besides, we need you.”
“We! Why are you doing this to me?”
“Why?” A trill of laughter escaped Lady Hester, as she made for the door. “My dear Laurie, I have your interests wholly at heart, believe me. Do not be taken in by Lady Mary talking lightly of anindependence. Brice Burloyne was a nabob.”
“What has that to do—?”
But Lady Hester had gone.
Delagarde stood staring at the open door, mid-sentence and open-mouthed, hardly taking in the significance of her last utterance.
“I do not believe this is happening,” he muttered.
Was his life to be turned upside down in a matter of hours? He cursed the ill-timing which had brought his great-aunt on a visit just at this moment. She was invariably content to remain in residence on his estates at Delagarde Manor, where she had lived, courtesy of his mother’s generosity, since before Laurence had been born. Her criticism rankled. Idle and hedonistic, indeed! Was he any more so than any other of his class? And what the deuce had she meant by saying he had no responsibilities? Was he not landlord to a vast estate? To be sure, he employed an agent to administer the lands, and his steward could be relied upon to keep all smooth in his absence.
Was that the burden of her complaint? That he was absent from Berkshire for a good part of the time? Good God, one could not be expected to kick one’s heels in the country all year round! Who did not spend the Season in town?
Another thought struck him, and his eye kindled. If this was a dig at his continued bachelorhood—! To be sure, he had to marry some day. The line must be carried on. But there were Delagarde cousins enough for the succession to be in no immediate danger, even were he not in the best of health. Nor was he reckless in his sporting pursuits, which might put him in danger of accident. In fact, he took sufficient account of his responsibilities not to merit that criticism in the very least.
