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Colin raked a hand over his face. “To laugh is a crime, is it?”
She cast him a look of baffled surprise. “So vulgarly? Very much so.”
Everything inside of him stiffened against the very suggestion this old biddy was making in referring to Penny as vulgar. He knew she was talking about her. His second youngest sister Penny smiled with her eyes and her heart. There was no pretention inside her, and she enjoyed the humor in her life and situation. That did not make her vulgar. The cold anger that normally surfaced when someone tried to insult his family stirred. “You will hold your tongue when it comes to my sisters and—”
With a thump of her cane and looking fit to swoon, she said, “I will not! Rumor has it another one of your sisters has fought a duel! A god-forsaken duel with a gentleman.”
“He was a right bastard, and Lizzy did not kill him.” Colin had taught his sisters how to take care of themselves. His family was too large, and his responsibility for them meant he needed to take certain chances.
The countess stared at Colin as if he were a dreaded creature. No doubt she was regretting that the solicitors had finally found him. Tightening her lips, she continued, “Gossip about town already whispers that your third eldest sister is the mistress of a lord! Or is it the fourth eldest? I cannot even keep track of you all for there are so many in your family! Trust that woman to be crass enough to have twelve children!”
“You will not insult my mother, madam—”
She continued her tirade as if he had not interjected.
“Another of your sisters has a young child hanging about her skirts that you have not given a proper explanation for!”
“And none will be given.” That little girl was Fanny’s love child, and no one’s business. And she was certainly not chitchat on whom the ton should speculate. Colin loathed that they could turn such a simple love into a matter of scandal for them to tear her character to shreds. The scandal sheets were already picking his family apart with their stories and suppositions. And his family was everything to him.
“Your family’s reputation is no good and dissolute! The first step in rendering yourselves respectable will be proper marriages; and, that starts with you, the head of the family.”
He stood with the firm intention of booting the old harridan from his home. A soft sob caught his attention, and he swung his gaze to the sound. His mother stood in the doorway, a delicate hand resting across her chest, her eyes wide and glistening with tears. Sudden fury rocked through him. In the depths of her eyes, he saw shame and a belief that she had not raised her children well. How dare this woman make his mother feel ashamed of her family?
“Mama—” he began, only to stop when she raised her hand.
“Please, Colin, listen to Lady Celdon. I believe her to be right in her assessment.” Closing the door behind her, she walked into the room, her movements slightly jerky. “Ever since your father died…I…so many things have happened with our family, and not all of them were good. Surely you are aware of this?”
No doubt she referred to the many scandals that had followed them like their shadows when they had lived in the idyllic town of Penporth.
“I will admit my brothers and sisters may be a little…impetuous, perhaps lacking in some smoothing around the edges. However, that does not mean any of us should have to marry until we are ready. If we need polishing, someone can be hired to help us. Surely this is a possible solution?”
His mother’s chin wobbled, and disappointment darkened her soft brown eyes.
“Connecting yourself with a respectable family is the best way forward,” she said gently. “Perhaps you might need some town bronze to impress upon the ton that you are an eligible catch. As it stands now, you are a rogue of the first order with money. Why would any respectable lady of impeccable heritage choose to marry you? Without those connections, what chances will your sisters and brothers have for a respectable future? It pains me to admit it, but some of your siblings own to a more dastardly reputation than you, Colin. It might not be all over town at the moment, but the society papers seem quite determined to pry out every tiny detail of scandal about the new earl and his family. All to see if we belong, and they will viciously pick our family to pieces and mock our disgrace.”
The devil take it!The truth of his mother’s words cut through him like the sharpest of blades.
His family needed the approval of the ton to belong, to fit in and allow them to establish themselves. At yesterday’s family meeting, while some of his siblings had thumbed their noses and laughed in snide mockery at the very idea, there were some whose eyes had glowed with hunger. Now they had money. More money than they could spend in two lifetimes. And they did not want to return to the small country mining town where they had spent most of their lives.
His brother Nicholas’s dream was to be a painter and attend the Royal Academy, and that ambition was now within his grasp; Lizzy was indeed having an affair with a duke whose fancy she had caught three years ago. His sister loved the man with her entire heart, but the duke did not see her as the marriageable sort. Perhaps now that her brother was an earl…if he were to become a respectable one, his sister might be elevated to more than a mistress.
The entire village of Penporth had shunned Fanny from their social gatherings for being suspected of having a child out of wedlock. Though they had cultivated the trumped-up story she had married her fiancé before he marched to war, it was simply a lie that had come apart at the seams. Fanny seemed happy with her lot in life, resigned with the life choices she had made; but, there were times when he caught her with a look of profound sadness and longing on her face. Colin would give anything to wipe that sadness away. Even if it meant he would have to settle down and marry. It was a sacrifice he was prepared to make for his family, but they would have to all work together to show a brave front and knuckle down to making society think better of them as a group.
He stood and started to pace as this unexpected view of his responsibilities tumbled through his thoughts. Many in their village referred to them as “those bad Fairbanks” for their wicked shenanigans. He had heard it muttered several times, in accents of reproach and fond amusement. “I can be respectable without taking a wife,” he muttered.
The old harridan, sensing weakness, circled him closer. “Can you dance the waltz?”
Why was that even bloody necessary?“No,” he admitted through gritted teeth. He was proficient at a few country stomps, but nothing as refined and elegant as the waltz.
“Do you have the proper connection to see your sisters, many of them are so lovely—”
“All of them are lovely,” he said coldly.
The harridan sighed. “All of them supposedly lovely will need the proper guidance to make respectable connections and matches within the ton. Chastity, modesty, and obedience are the pre-eminent female virtues, and it pains me to say your sisters are sadly lacking in those. They must at least assume the appearance of having those virtues if the family is not going to be a nest of scandal. This is something that must be corrected if they are to be successful. And their success will be measured through their marriages. The antics my investigator uncovered will not be tolerated about town.”
He stiffened. “You dared to have my family investigated?”
An elegant brow arched. “You dare to censure me?”
