Amanda Scott (33 page)

N
ICK DINED THAT EVENING
at Brooks’s. He had hoped to find Tommy there, but when he did not, he dined with only his thoughts for company. They were not pleasant companions. A feeling had seized him, that he had overreacted to Melissa’s reluctance to confide in him, and it would not be assuaged. Her behavior had been evasive for some time, but so had his own, he knew. From the moment she had told him about Seacourt, whenever he thought about what the villain had done, the rage surged up again and threatened to choke him. He could not even ask her to talk about it, fearing that if he opened the doors to his rage, he would no longer be able to contain it. Still he knew that she had been distressed for some time. Having learned about Seacourt, he thought he had learned the worst. Now he was not so sure.

He wanted to be with her constantly, to protect her. He knew he could not hover over her without making matters worse, but it galled him to think that the minute he had left her to her own devices, she had done something she did not want to discuss.

“Thought you might be here.”

Looking up from his plate, Nick found his wife’s stepfather standing by his table, gazing pensively down at him. “Hello, Penthorpe. Looking for me?”

“Yes,” Viscount Penthorpe said, glancing around. “Kept up my membership all these years because most of my friends are members, but dashed if Brooks’s don’t still feel just like a duke’s house with the duke lying dead upstairs. Mind if I join you?”

“Pull up a chair. Footman, another bottle!”

Penthorpe lowered his lanky body into a chair, waited until the footman had poured his wine, then said casually, “You’ll be going to Vauxhall tonight, I daresay.”

“Sorry,” Nick said, “but my trainer is moving my racers to Epsom by easy stages for the Derby Thursday, and he will be in town tonight. I’ve sent for him to meet me here at seven. You find me dining early because I’ve decided to go with him to Clapham afterward to have a look at them. They’ll be stabled there overnight.”

“Dash it,” Penthorpe said, “I’m sure Susan and Charley told me you meant to take Melissa to Vauxhall tonight.” Then, brightening, he added, “Look here, you didn’t forget, did you? I’d understand that. Done it myself, frequently. The case is, you see, I told them I’d be spending the evening with you, and I’ve got to go to Vauxhall.”

Deciding he was under no obligation to explain, Nick said only, “I didn’t forget. I am definitely not taking Melissa tonight, but that needn’t stop you from going.”

“Well, it won’t,” Penthorpe said, adding with an engaging air of confidence, “Tell you the truth, I’m just as glad the lass ain’t going. She’d be bound to tell her mama about seeing me there, and Susan’s already out of reason cross with me because I won’t take
her.
Said everyone would be masked, so no one would recognize her; but I ask you, don’t you recognize nearly everyone you know, mask or no mask?”

“I do, and I take your point, but aside from the possibility that someone might insult her, don’t you think your wife would be altogether safer back in Scotland? I can understand her wanting to come to London for our wedding, but now—”

“She misses the twins, but she don’t want to look like she’s running away,” Penthorpe said with a sigh. “You know the whole tale by now, I expect. Fact is, we never thought much about Seacourt once we’d got settled in Scotland. It was on the trip down that I chanced to remember we’d never received word of an English divorce. Susan never knew it could make a difference, but I’d meant to look into it years ago. From some cause or other, I forgot about it before I ever got round to doing it. Never thought he could cause such a ruckus, though.”

“How much of a ruckus?”

Penthorpe grimaced. “Fact is, he seems to enjoy tormenting Susan. Sends her little notes, or messages by way of so-called friends paying calls. Hints one day that he means to sue her for adultery or have her clapped up for bigamy. The next day he sends a charming letter, or a friend assures her he don’t mean her any harm. Even tried to get me to pay him to leave her alone. I’d have done it, too, if I’d thought I could trust his word. Man’s a beast. Ought to be put down, and that’s a fact.”

Looking at him just then, Nick thought perhaps Seacourt ought to give thanks for Penthorpe’s habit of procrastination. He said, “I’ve some cause to dislike him, myself.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Penthorpe said with a penetrating look. “I daresay young Melissa remembers a good deal about the way that brute treated her mother.”

“Yes, she does.” Nick did not know if Penthorpe knew about anything beyond Seacourt’s brutality, but he had no intention of adding to his knowledge.

Penthorpe leaned forward, saying, “Look here, Vexford—no, dash it! You’re my son-in-law now, or as near as makes no difference. Look here, Nicholas—”

“Nick.”

“Right. Fact is, I’d be extremely grateful if you’d toddle along to Vauxhall with me tonight. Don’t want to make myself conspicuous, don’t you know.”

“No, I don’t know. They say fifteen or sixteen thousand people will be there tonight. How could you be conspicuous?”

Penthorpe grimaced. “Well, you see, the fact is, Susan already suspects I’ve been … I haven’t! Damme, I wouldn’t, but I’m to meet with a magistrate, and—”

“A magistrate at Vauxhall?” Amused but skeptical, Nick raised his eyebrows. “Does this magistrate wear skirts, sir?”

“Now, dash it, you sound just like Susan—or you would if she knew anything about the magistrate. Thing is, a lady’s going to present me to this fellow. She says he can grant Susan a judicial decree, protecting her against a charge of bigamy or adultery. Says a whole lot of people have told her it can be done, and she named I don’t know how many magistrates who would see to it after a lot of rigmarole, but she says this fellow will grant it solely on the basis of our Scottish divorce. Must say it’s the most sensible thing I’ve heard about the law since we came into England.”

Suspicion stirring, Nick said gently, “I believe you mentioned a lady, sir.”

“I did, and dashed if that ain’t why I’d be grateful if you could see your way clear to going with me. I don’t want to have to explain the matter to anyone outside the family, you see, and you’re the only one in it who’s in town, who ain’t female.”

“Forgive me for pressing you, sir, but just who is this lady of yours?”

“Dash it, haven’t I just told you she’s not mine? Closer to being yours, for that matter, from what I’ve heard, for it’s Lady Hawthorne. Now, what have I said to make you look gimlet-eyed all of a sudden? I know your name ain’t been linked with hers since you married Melissa or, by God, I’d have had a thing or two to say to you. Don’t you believe she knows a magistrate who would be willing to help us?”

“Oh, I believe Clara knows all sorts of magistrates,” Nick said. “I just don’t know why she would exert herself to help anyone, let alone you. She is not, by and large, responsive to other people’s troubles.”

“Well, she’s been most kind to me,” Penthorpe said stiffly. “We’ve met several times this past fortnight, at different houses but always in the best company, don’t you know. Still, I don’t mind confessing, I’d as lief not be seen by some gossiping biddy whilst I’m traipsing around Vauxhall arm in arm with her, looking for her tame magistrate. Much better if I were seen with you, my son.”

Better for whom,
Nick wondered, trying to imagine how Melissa would react to learning that he had gone to Vauxhall without her. In truth, however, there were few people likely to bear tales of him to her, and there were clearly many who delighted in carrying tales about Penthorpe to Lady Ophelia or Susan. The
beau monde
was already talking about Susan, and he had heard tales about Penthorpe’s flirting, too. Making up his mind, he said, “You’ll have to wait until I’ve spoken with my trainer.”

“I don’t mind,” Penthorpe said, heaving a sigh of relief. “Said I’d meet her between nine and ten, and there’s bound to be a crush till long after eight, what with everyone lined up, wanting to see the new illuminations the moment the gates open.”

Melissa sat alone in the countess’s pleasant sitting room, gloomily looking forward to a solitary dinner. Nicholas had left almost immediately after refusing to take her to Vauxhall, saying he would dine at his club. Lord and Lady Ulcombe were dining with friends in Grosvenor Square, and Oliver had not put in an appearance for dinner in days. Unhappily suspecting that Nicholas was not dining at his club at all but was somewhere else with Lady Hawthorne, she had just reached the depressing conclusion that she would be more comfortable ordering a solitary tray served to her in her bedchamber, when the door to the sitting room opened, and Oliver looked in.

“You alone?” he asked with a grimace of annoyance.

“Yes, and I am very glad to see you. I was just going to order a tray in my room, but if you mean to dine here, I’d much rather dine with you.”

“Of course I mean to dine here,” he said, stepping into the room and leaving the door ajar. “I must say, I think it’s the outside of enough that everyone has gone out.”

“Not everyone, Oliver. I am still here.”

“Well, yes,” he said, moving aimlessly about, “but you’re not one who’s been complaining that I never show my face around here anymore. My parents are leaving for Wimbledon Park tomorrow, then to Epsom for the Derby—and where the devil’s Nick? Not that I really want him, mind you. I do much better without him, in general.”

“He went out earlier,” Melissa said, trying to sound matter-of-fact.

Oliver looked at her. “I say, are you moped? What are you doing here if everyone else has gone out? Ain’t you going to Vauxhall? I thought someone said—”

“I did think we were going,” Melissa said in a small, dignified voice, “but I was mistaken.”

“I see.” His expression sharpened. “Are you at outs with Nick? You can tell me. I’m frequently out of charity with him myself, but I always come about.”

“Do you, Oliver?” She was not accustomed to confiding her troubles to anyone else, with the exception of Charley, who ruthlessly dragged confidences out of her. Something in the way Oliver looked at her led her to say, “In truth, sir, I’d welcome your advice. I’m afraid I did something foolish, and Nicholas is displeased.”

“You might as well tell me all about it,” Oliver said, taking a seat on a nearby sofa, taking care not to wrinkle his coat or pantaloons. “Since I’ve taken the trouble to dine here, someone might as well benefit from my presence.”

“Well, I don’t really want to relate any of the details, but—”

“Dash it, how can I help if I don’t know what the devil you’ve done?”

“That’s true. Have you really resolved your troubles? I know your papa—”

“We’ll leave my papa out of this,” Oliver said stiffly.

“That’s just like a man,” Melissa said. “You want me to reveal a lot of uncomfortable details about what I’ve done, but you don’t mean to tell me anything about yourself. You’re just like your brother, Oliver.”

“No, I’m not,” Oliver retorted. “What the devil do you mean by that, anyway?”

“I don’t understand either of you, that’s all,” Melissa said with a sigh, “and I don’t think I want to tell you my troubles, after all.”

“You’ll have to tell me if you want my help. For that matter, I’m a dashed sight easier to understand than Nick is. I’m a simple creature with simple habits.”

“Expensive habits,” she said, smiling at him.

He lifted his chin and said, “Didn’t I just tell you, I’ve taken care of that. I won’t go begging to my father again, that’s certain, and I’ve never gone to Nick.”

“You had enormous gaming debts, did you not?” Melissa asked.

“Not so enormous, and they’re no concern of yours.” When she did not respond, his eyes narrowed. “Look here, don’t go telling me you’re burdened by debts of honor. I know that females occasionally wager more than they should on silver loo and that sort of nonsense, but you can’t have lost so much as all that.”

“Well, if you must know, I did lose some money,” Melissa said, “but it wasn’t on silver loo, and that’s not why Nicholas is vexed. I went out without saying where I was going yesterday, and was gone longer than I’d intended.”

“You said it was foolish. That’s just heedless.”

“I know, but when it came on to rain, I let Sir Geoffrey bring me home, and I didn’t want to explain that to Nicholas, because I didn’t understand myself how it came about, but somehow he got a notion I was hiding something, and practically accused me of trying to cuckold him.”

“What, Nick jealous?” Oliver laughed. “I wish I may see that. But tell me about this money you lost. I can’t see why that would put him in a pucker. He’s had a few debts of his own in his time, after all. You must not have explained—”

“It’s not the money, anyway, because—” She broke off, certain she would be unwise to say more to him when she did not know if he could be trusted to keep silent.

Oliver regarded her shrewdly. “I see how it is.”

“You don’t! You can’t possibly!”

“Plain as print. You’ve got a problem you’re afraid to tell him about because you’ve stirred that damned temper of his by flirting or some such thing. Well, I fixed my problem, but I don’t know how the devil to fix yours, if that’s what it is. I certainly can’t pay your debts. Mine are paid, but I ain’t exactly rolling in lucre.”

Seeing no point in gratifying him by telling him how close to the mark he had come, she said only, “How did you pay yours?”

“That, my dear, is none of your affair,” he said loftily.

“Oh, Oliver, you didn’t go to the moneylenders!”

“I did not,” he snapped. “I’ve no intention of discussing it further. I resolved my problem, that’s all.” After another long look, he said, “Maybe you should speak to my father. He’ll give you a scold if you were foolish, I expect, but he won’t eat you, and like as not, he’ll pay your debt without splitting on you to Nick.”

“No, I’d rather tell Nicholas the truth than do that. Besides, I don’t really need money. You’re wrong about that part.” Though she certainly meant to repay Lady Ophelia, the need was not urgent. To repay Yarborne was essential.