Mary Blayney - [Pennistan 03] (34 page)

Grabbing a handkerchief, she blotted the few traitorous tears that had escaped before resolve ended them. She was not about to let a man make her life miserable. It had happened before and, she vowed, it would never happen again.

When Mia came to her door, Elena’s composure was firmly in place. “We are off to the dressmaker,
cara
, and after that the milliner, I think. There is nothing like a new hat to boost our spirits.”

“Yes, and then to Gunter’s,” Mia added. “Lord William is to meet us there for an ice. By the time we are home again, we will be ready to shine and enjoy every moment of the Season.”

W
HAT ARE YOU DOING
at breakfast so early?” Gabriel set down his knife and picked up a piece of well-buttered toast.

“I did not sleep well.”

“That’s hardly surprising. We heard about Bendas’s bully.”

“Ah, yes, the first step toward family legend. Give the story a name. I’d prefer The Duke’s Triumph.”

“No, no. Everyone would have to ask which duke. Besides you are not allowed to choose the name the story is known by.” Gabe asked the footman to “fetch some more hot water.”

Meryon thought of Elena. “Fetch some more hot water” was the code for “leave us alone.”

“Lyn, you are not going to laugh this off, are you?”

“Of course not. Steps are well under way to end this once and for all.”

“Legal steps?” Gabriel asked.

Meryon did not deem that question worth answering so he nudged the subject in a different direction. “I’ve been debating moving the children to the house in Richmond to make sure they are safe.”

“Good God, Lyn, they are safer in this barn of a house than anywhere else. It’s not the castle fortress that Pennford is, but it would take weeks to go through every room and even longer to burn the place down.”

“Burn it down? Thank you for introducing a whole new fear into my already too imaginative brain. The truth is that I like the house in Richmond much better than this one. I find that the Season has not even begun and I am already bored with the ton.”

“You are?”

“Yes.” Meryon spoke the one word but was sure that Gabe could hear what was unsaid. “And you will leave it at that.”

Meryon ignored his brother’s considering stare. Gabriel was debating whether to ignore the order, he was sure. Which was another reason it had been a mistake to
invite Elena Verano to dinner. The whole acquaintance had been a mistake, starting with their ill-advised conversation in the dark.

A silent breakfast followed, with the rustle of the paper for company. When Meryon had signaled the footman that he was finished, Gabriel tossed the paper on the chair next to him.

“Since you are awake so early, Lyn, come with me to the gunsmith. The boys want to start to hunt and in order to do that I must teach them to use something besides slingshots. I could use your advice.”

Meryon allowed himself to be talked into it and even suggested that they take the cabriolet, but stopped short of allowing Gabriel the reins. They were out early enough that the streets were not crowded.

“So, Lynford, your efforts to ruin Bendas are legal, aren’t they? I did notice your failure to answer before.”

“Because the question does not even merit an answer. The entire reason I am seeking justice is because of Bendas’s illegal actions.” He slowed the horse so a man with a stick could finish crossing the road. “Now we will talk about something else and not bring that subject up again.” He thought for a moment and then smiled. “Here is something guaranteed to distract you, brother. Your insistence on the necessity of finding positions for the retired soldiers has fallen on fertile ground.”

A boy ran in front of the carriage, startling the horse, and it took all of Meryon’s attention to keep the horse from bolting.

“Well done, Lyn. We don’t have crowds like this in the country.”

“You think this is a crowd?”

“Well, more than we ever see in Sussex.” Gabriel sat back again. “So my nagging convinced you it needs to be addressed.”

“That and someone else who used a similar logic,” he admitted. “I have a plan to aid widows and orphans but I am going to work on the problem of unemployment as well. This on a more personal level.”

But more than hiring one boy at a time, he thought, remembering Elena’s teasing comment.

“I’ve read through the proposals that David sent me and I think that six of the dozen are sound and worth pursuing. I will write to David today and instruct him to forward a letter of interest to the business representative in Manchester.”

“Well done, Your Grace.”

Gabriel’s approval was satisfying and Meryon smiled at his brother.

“I admire you for it,” Gabriel continued. “It is setting an example and showing others how it should be done. If Parliament will not take the steps that must be taken then individuals will have to.”

When they reached the gunsmith, it was clear they were going to have to wait, though when Rimbaud’s assistant saw that the duke had accompanied his brother he hurried to assure them that they would be seen to as quickly as possible. They were invited to look at the latest pistols from Italy, but neither one cared enough to give the display their full attention.

“What did you think of Georges’s vignettes?” Gabriel
asked as he bent to look at the firing mechanism of a small pistol.

“His short plays intrigued me. They gave us all something to discuss. Georges has created an impressive following,” Meryon said.

“Because he writes the truth even if his stories are presented more like fables. We congratulated him on his success and hope it lasts for a decade.” Gabriel’s pleased expression left no doubt of his sincerity.

“What a strange world we live in when a man like Georges can arrive on the London scene and create a name and fortune for himself, but a woman like Signora Verano is dependent on society to give her recognition, to say she is acceptable in company, and the very thought of her making money with her talent is unseemly.”

“As you said, Lyn, she wishes to be embraced by the ton; Georges has no such ambitions.”

“But she could have made a different choice.”

“What? To sing on the stage? To become some man’s mistress?” Gabriel was silent for less than a minute. “Have the two of you had a falling-out? You seemed very close the other night.” He thought a little more and winced. “Lyn, you did not insult her in some way, did you?”

“I do not want to discuss it.”

“Which is the same as saying yes.”

“Apparently I can see change coming and make the most of it, but when it comes to women I am like a schoolboy who insults the girls he likes the best.”

Before Gabriel could say anything else, the gunsmith
came up to them. Meryon hoped it was the last of the discussion but the moment they were back in the cabriolet, Gabriel brought it up again.

“I do not want to discuss it, Gabe. I have sent a written apology and hope she will speak to me when we meet again.”

“That bad, is it? How unlike you, brother. You are usually the most diplomatic of men. I will pray for you and not mention a word of this to Lynette.”

“If that is meant as a joke, it is not funny. I have said all I will say and ask you to forget we discussed it.”

“Drop me at Gunter’s, will you? I am to meet my wife and the boys there. We are off to Astley’s Circus.”

Meryon trusted that meant he had dropped the subject. “You are taking the boys to Astley’s? I will tell Cook to prepare a supper to soothe wild children.”

“And exhausted parents.”

Meryon did as his brother asked and was about to move out onto the road from Gunter’s when he saw that Gabriel had left a packet on the seat. His damn tickets to the circus, no doubt.

With a word to Wilson, Meryon hopped down, papers in hand, and made his way to the door. The place was crowded but Meryon saw Gabe standing by a large table filled with familiar faces. All of them laughing, full of life, with Elena Verano in their number. Of course she would fit into Gabriel’s circle of friends. He and Lynette valued talent before status and Elena could claim both.

She was wearing a pale peach dress, her bonnet a
straw-and-ribbon confection, and she looked more delicious than the ices on which Gunter’s had built such a success.

Meryon stood gazing at them for a few minutes, as did everyone else in the place, longing to be part of the camaraderie that bound them all in such bonhomie.

Elena was watching Miss Castellano, smiling, as the young girl told a story. Lord William listened to Mia with a different look altogether. Meryon thought a courtship might be well along, and wished he could be amused at his one-time jealousy of the viscount. That absurdity was one more example of his lack of common sense where Signora Verano was concerned.

Meryon stayed by the door until Mia finished her story and everyone laughed. They were enjoying one another, the afternoon, and their ices.

He knew the party would end the moment he walked over. Elena would stop smiling. Lord William and Miss Castellano would wonder why, if they did not already know.

Gabriel would whisper to Lynette, and she would think even less of Meryon than she already did. And Gabe’s boys were already too well mannered around him, unless Rexton was with them.

Garrett would be his faithful boon companion, but one out of eight did not sound like welcoming numbers to him.

Meryon decided to leave them alone. Besides, he needed to write to David and set in motion the ideas he had mentioned to Gabriel. He would spend some time with Rexton and Alicia. They always cheered him.

Having half-convinced himself he did not have time to while away the afternoon at Gunter’s, Meryon handed the packet and a coin to the host at the door and went back outside to his cabriolet. Another burst of the cheeriest sort of laughter convinced him he was doing them a favor by not intruding.

M
ERYON CALLED HIMSELF
a fool for having deliberately avoided a meeting with Elena Verano. Tonight. He would find her tonight even if it meant going to each of the five events for which he’d received invitations. It might not be Easter yet but the entertainments of the Season had begun.

Meryon’s weakness annoyed him so much that even news that the trustees of the Bendas dukedom were beginning to ask questions did little to ease his annoyance.

His source reported that the trustees who lived in London had two concerns, one major and the other apparently inconsequential. The trustees had asked Bendas for an explanation of his recent investments in land, which seemed excessive and undirected, and another wondered at his constant hiring of new staff.

Did it not seem odd, one asked in a letter to his
fellows, that in a time of such widespread unemployment the staff at the Bendas townhouse appeared to be in a constant state of upset?

Overall the report Meryon received, from the very trustee who questioned the staff replacement, had good news, but the whole process was taking too damn long.

Even a visit to Rexton and Alicia did not cheer him as much as usual. Rexton was crushingly disappointed that he had not been allowed to go to the circus with his cousins. His whining grew so persistent that finally Meryon agreed to take him directly after Easter. That helped improve his mood, but having won the victory the boy began to nag Meryon about his longing to learn to shoot, another bit of influence from his cousins.

Alicia could have cared less about guns but she did respond most readily to her brother’s mood and clung to her father’s knees with “Me, me, me,” her constant refrain.

As he dressed for the evening he congratulated himself on being so distracted by the children that he had given Elena Verano barely a thought for all of an hour, and swore to himself that he had never expected a response to his letter of apology.

Garrett was waiting for him in the salon. The majordomo reported a delay in bringing the carriage round because one of the horses had been injured and a new team was being readied. At Garrett’s query, the majordomo assured him that the horse’s injury was minor, so Meryon and Garrett sat down to wait.

In the same parlor he had shared with Elena not so
long ago. “I told Gabe today that I was considering moving the household to Richmond,” Meryon began. “I told him of my concern for the children’s safety but, to be honest, that was a faradiddle.”

“Living at Richmond would mean a longer trip to Parliament.”

“If I came in on horseback, I could enjoy the air instead of being cooped up in a carriage.”

“Yes, and the children would be able to have more freedom.”

“Exactly.”

“However, it is not just Parliament that is farther away, Meryon. All the entertainments of London would be much less convenient.”

Looking him straight in the eye Meryon told the truth. “I grow tired of them already.”

Garrett sat back and thought before he spoke. “Is this still about Rowena? Do you miss her more here? She always did prefer London to Pennford. And actively disliked the house at Richmond.”

“No, no,” Meryon said quickly, then wished he had lied.