Chapter 2 #3
She set down her tea cup silently. “You are not in disgrace, and if I must instruct His Grace of Wellington to emphasize that fact to the Regent, the gossips, and the matchmakers, you have only to say the word.”
Instruct Wellington. Interesting concept, though if that formidable peer were to accept anybody’s pedagogy, it would be that of the ladies.
“His Grace has done what he thought was appropriate for me, and I am content with the results. I am not content that you should deny yourself the blandishments of Town on my account.”
The smile was back. “You should hear yourself. ‘Blandishments of Town.’ Coal smoke that chokes horses, scandal, rampant illness, filthy streets, and sinful pastimes for those who can afford them. Mayfair in spring can be lovely, but winter in London is to be avoided, as most of polite society knows.”
And yet, Hyperia chose to bide there with her rapscallion brother.
“Julian, if we are through skirmishing, might you tell me what brought you here? You appear to be in good health—I do worry, and I am your mother, so don’t scold me.
My eyes and ears at the Hall say you show few signs of melancholia, but you are the fellow who made very effective use of disguises when you should have been in uniform.
Lady Clo will understand if I must cut my visit short. ”
For the barest, merest instant, the words Mama, please come home hovered in my mind. Fortunately, I had Carstairs’s conundrum to solve, and thus Her Grace was spared from any mawkish importuning.
“I have been asked to undertake another investigation,” I said, “and the matter at issue will put me in your ambit here in Hampshire. I cannot divulge all the particulars, but you deserve a general briefing.”
“An investigation.” Neither surprise nor censure came through. “At Yuletide?”
“Commencing afterward.” I explained Carstairs’s situation. He’d sent me his collection of threatening notes, including the first, which had inspired him to quit the family seat a mere few weeks after mustering out.
“And you must involve yourself in this affair at the holidays?” Her Grace asked, munching a petit four draped in green icing.
“At the New Year.”
“Odd. The New Year is not yet upon us, and here you are. How is Leander?”
I needed a moment to grasp that I was being scolded. I so far had offered neither assurances of his good health nor his greetings to his grandmama.
“Leander granted me compassionate leave because I missed my mother.”
“Your mother missed you too. Your letters really are remarkably brief, Julian. Dispatches rather than correspondence. Are you taking up this ill-timed investigation because you are bored?”
In Arthur’s absence, I was shouldering a mountain of ducal correspondence, hosting neighbors at the Hall, and making a dutiful handful of calls in return. I met with the stewards and the vicar and had been approached about joining the Committee for the Peace.
Compared to reconnaissance work for Wellington… tedium by a dutiful name.
“My interest in Carstairs’s situation has to do with knowing that a soldier deserves the privilege of returning home when the guns go silent.
He is entitled to be the conquering hero, if only for a short time.
To put the war behind him in any fashion, he must be feted and appreciated.
He deserves to know that his sacrifices are spoken of and valued.
Carstairs is instead being forced into the posture of a pariah. ”
The duchess considered the teapot, a graceful ceramic article decorated with violets and greenery.
“We did not fete you. We did not dare.”
“I did not feel fete-worthy at the time. Now, it’s celebration enough simply to live.” On my good days, I could adhere to that philosophy, and I enjoyed many good days. “Carstairs has asked for my assistance. I could not deny a fellow soldier aid if you yourself demanded it of me, madam.”
She nodded. “Duty, honor, loyalty. One understands. Do you suspect Lady Clo is the author of Captain Carstairs’s misery?”
The question astonished me for its insight. “Why would she…? Because she dislikes the family?”
“Has no time for the baron, certainly, though she’s tolerant of the heir. I have not asked for details. She nods to them in the churchyard, though. Her dislike is Sunday civil.”
The worst kind of animosity, cloaking itself in manners. “Somebody is threatening to reveal wrongdoing from the captain’s past,” I said. “I cannot see Lady Clotilda being privy to such information.”
Her Grace chose a pink petit four. “You’d be surprised. When the time comes to launch a daughter or find a daughter-in-law, the most ladylike mother can become rather fierce.”
As Mama was growing fierce when it came to my lengthy engagement to Hyperia West.
“I will bide with Carstairs when he visits his family seat, and you need not explain to Lady Clotilda the true nature of my role. The captain and I served together in the loosest definition of the words, and we are neighbors in Surrey.”
She passed me the only other pink petit four.
“Raspberry. You’ve been eyeing it for the past quarter hour.
They are quite good. Bring Leander to stay with me here.
Society must begin to accommodate the notion that Harry left us a consolation.
Lady Clo will agree with me. Don’t look so surprised, Julian.
You would have asked eventually. We can’t both repeatedly leave that boy, or he’ll grow up as rackety as his late father. ”
Her Grace had just solved a problem I hadn’t been prepared to face.
Leander took great exception when I absented myself from the Hall, which was understandable.
His mama had gone for a short visit to her home shire and never returned.
He had no memory of his father, and his ducal uncle had decamped very soon after making the boy’s acquaintance.
Leander nonetheless had no place in my investigations, which could and did occasionally turn dangerous. I thus tended to leave him at the Hall when I went sleuthing.
He tended to object and expressed his disapproval by climbing out onto the roof, refusing supper, or getting lost between the nursery and the kitchen for hours. Her Grace regarded that behavior with an equanimity that eluded me.
“I have missed you,” I said, rising. “Very much. Lady Clo is lucky to have your company over the holidays.”
Mama rose as well and linked her arm through mine.
“She is. I miss you too, Julian, but you managed so splendidly last year that I felt I could accept Clotilda’s invitation.
You and she will get along magnificently.
You are both skeptical by nature and stubborn to your bones.
I predict rousing political debates should your paths cross. ”
When the duchess and I parted, I ventured to hug her, after I offered her a proper bow, of course. She bussed my cheek, and on the return journey to Surrey, my heart was lighter than it had been.
Hyperia and I were approaching some sort of impasse, but I was growing accustomed to those—and braver about them. Thanks to Her Grace, I need not abandon Leander to take on Carstairs’s challenge, and thanks to Carstairs, I had an investigation to relieve the monotony of life at the Hall.
Then too, Mama had pronounced me skeptical and stubborn, and surely those traits were preferable to being rackety?