XII #2
“She has been up to no mischief that I know about, sir, which is not to say there hasn’t been some.
” She grinned at him. “We met the good major on the Steyne yesterday, but when he only bowed in passing, her air of disappointment was enough to convince me that there have been no more assignations, though we are forever running into him at parties, of course.”
“Well, that’s all right. I was afraid she might be fretting you to flinders.”
She twinkled at him. “I do not fret so easily, sir. Besides, we have been too busy. There was a riding party yesterday, and we have been sea-bathing and to several private parties. Rory had not been into the sea since her last visit, you know, and she was so astonished to discover that old Martha Gunn is still operating the ladies’ bathing machines that she quite forgot her sulks. ”
“Well, I daresay she will soon forget the major, too,” Huntley said comfortably.
“They both know, after all, that nothing can come of their relationship. Even if Aurora were not contracted to me, her parents would never consider such an alliance, you know. Talcott is a younger son, I believe, and your sister would never countenance giving her daughter to a man without solid prospects.”
Nell did not question his reasoning. Though it was inconceivable to her that a man who could afford a majority in the Prince’s Own Regiment could have been born without a shirt, she knew the major’s claims could never rival Huntley’s in her sister’s eyes.
So, instead of debating with him she turned the subject to one she considered more suitable to the time and place.
“I have been wanting to thank you for your kindness to Kit, sir. I know you said you had not been harsh with him, but I certainly never expected you to exert yourself so much on his behalf as he assures us you have.”
“Nonsense,” he replied, coloring a little beneath his deep tan. “I’ve done very little of consequence and nothing at all out of the way, I assure you.”
“Oh, of course not,” she agreed promptly. “It must be quite a normal thing for you to take a green young man under your wing and to provide him with the entree to a club he’d not have dared to set foot in on his own.”
“Well, that may not have been such a great service,” he confessed with an apologetic smile.
“The play there is nearly as deep as any at Brook’s or even White’s in London, but it is better for him to drop his blunt in an honest game than a dishonest one.
And those clubs he’s been frequenting with young Seton are little more than hells that specialize in separating unwary young chubs like Kit from their brass.
He’ll come to no great harm at Alcott’s. ”
“Well, it was kind of you, sir,” she insisted, “and you can scarcely say it was to save his groats that you presented Kit to the Prince of Wales.”
He chuckled. “I daresay you’ll come to wish I’d never done that, either. But at least I can see to it that he acquires friends of a different stamp than those rattles I’ve seen him with. Someone ought to have introduced him about long before now.”
“I cannot think who might have done so,” Nell replied, wrinkling her brow.
“Crossways might, of course, only I daresay it wouldn’t occur to him unless Kit asked him, which he wouldn’t, not being in the habit of applying to him for anything.
And it would never occur to Sir Henry to do so, because he still thinks of Kit as a schoolboy, despite all Kit’s attempts to prove how grown up he has become.
Perhaps it would be different if he had gone up to Oxford or Cambridge. ”
“He ought to have gone. It would have been good for him.”
“But he is not at all inclined to be bookish,” Nell explained, “and he has no interest in a military career either, though both Mama and I can only be glad of that. He prefers a sporting life to anything else, and I daresay that once Sir Henry places his affairs in his own hands, Kit will retire to the property Papa left him near Patchem and settle right down. Until then, however, he is bent upon cutting a dash, and Sir Henry is bent—with Mama’s encouragement, of course—upon seeing to it that he has as little of the ready to waste as possible.
You have had a beneficial influence in that quarter as well, I’m pleased to say. ”
“The devil I have! I’ve scarcely exchanged three words with Sir Henry Sinclair. Doing it too brown, Nell.”
She laughed. “No such thing, sir. It’s the truth.
Mama has a very strong sense of economy, though I’ve never understood how she came by it unless it was through fear that my father would outrun his fortune and thus prove to her relations that she had married beneath her station.
But, whatever the reason, she exerts enough of an influence over Sir Henry that Kit’s allowance has been extremely small.
And since Sir Henry thought him a mere schoolboy and disapproved of his friends into the bargain, nothing Kit could say seemed to make any impression at all. ”
“What of you? Did you say nothing?”
“Oh, I exerted myself to change Mama’s views, but it was to little avail. And Sir Henry merely pats me on the head and tells me it is not expected that a mere female should understand the workings of the financial world.” Her fingers curled as she said these last words, and Huntley grinned at her.
“Poor Nell.”
“Well, no one would like being spoken to in such a way. But, of course, once he realized that you had taken Kit under your wing, he saw immediately that Kit’s allowance must be increased. And his generosity was such that Kit is practically in alt.”
Huntley frowned and turned a searching look upon her. “You must find it a trifle frustrating that after all your efforts on his behalf, I should succeed without the merest effort and without, for that matter, even knowing I’d done anything out of the way,” he said sympathetically.
Nell shook her head, smiling at him. “Oh, no. How could I be so selfish? I’m truly grateful to you, sir.
I’d nearly come to my wits’ end and was beginning to fear that, out of pure exasperation, Kit might work some mischief or other.
Especially in view of all the attention being lavished on Rory once she arrived.
” She paused, gazing down at her hands, then gave him a straight look.
“I’m afraid I even feared he might have encouraged her to drink too much that day in hopes that she might be sent home in disgrace. ”
“Well, you can put that maggot straight out of your head,” Huntley said.
“I’m certain such a thought never entered his head.
Aurora behaved badly, and though I think he ought to have stopped her, I do understand that he, at least, believed himself unequal to the task.
Is that young fop with his arm draped over the back of her chair her latest conquest, by the bye? ”
Nell glanced over to the other group, noting the elegantly dressed, if unmannerly, young gentleman to whom Huntley referred.
“He is only one of many, sir. I doubt she is very intimate with any of them.”
“I should hope not.”
“No, indeed,” Nell replied with an innocent look. “You’ve much more to fear from Jeremy.”
“And who, pray tell, is Jeremy?” The heavy brows quirked, but she knew he had taken her measure.
“Why, our footman, sir. He and Rory are thick as thieves.”
“Cut line, Nell. I know Aurora well enough to be certain I need have no qualms about a mere footman.”
She chuckled. “Perhaps not. But they are firm friends, nonetheless, on account of Ulysses.” He looked puzzled, so she explained patiently that Ulysses was Rory’s kitten.
“The one you allowed her to bring home in your carriage from the esplanade that day, sir. You were afraid of fleas,” she reminded him.
He nodded, calmly recommending that she get on with her tale.
She dimpled at his stern tone but obeyed him willingly enough.
“It seems that the care and feeding of Ulysses have pretty much fallen to Jeremy’s lot.
And he is so besotted over Rory that he does her slightest bidding without question.
Why, I do believe that if she was to command that he sleep with Ulysses, Jeremy would even do that.
I have discovered them more than once head to head in conference over Ulysses’ needs, and I daresay my incorrigible niece has confided more to him than she has any business to confide to any servant. ”
Huntley agreed that she was very likely right, but Nell could detect not the slightest degree of annoyance in his tone.
They conversed amicably for some moments more before he took leave of her and moved to speak briefly to the two ladies on the sofa.
His farewells seemed to provide a signal of sorts to the other gentlemen, for they followed nearly upon his heels, taking Kit with them and leaving the three ladies alone at last.
Lady Agnes announced that she for one was ready to lie down upon her bed. “All that conversation has given me the headache,” she declared. “I should have known better than to exert myself.”
“Poor Mama,” Nell said, twinkling at her. “Shall I ring for Mathilde to bring you a dose of hartshorn and water?”
“I shall go up,” replied her ladyship with dignity. “You were very cozy with Huntley, my dear. I hope he wasn’t put out by all the young men he found here. We could scarcely forbid them the door, when I know most of their mamas!”
“Don’t distress yourself, ma’am. Huntley and I discussed Kit and Rory. He was not at all put out, I promise you.”
Lady Agnes accepted her at her word and went upstairs to tend her headache, but Rory eyed her uneasily and, the moment the doors had shut behind her grandmother, demanded to know if Nell had spoken the truth about Huntley’s not having been annoyed.
“For I cannot think why else you should discuss me, though I have told him I’ll not stand for his interference in my life!”