Chapter Eight
“Lady Valor,” Lord Tramondeley said.
Lord Ledderbey had been trailing behind and now caught up to him.
“Lord Tramondeley, Lord Ledderbey,” Valor said. “You will know my sisters and of course my father.”
“Tramondeley,” the duke said, “how do you get on?”
“Very well, Your Grace. Lady Valor, Lady Westmoreland indicated she would put me on your card,” Lord Tramondeley said. “I did not even realize there would be a supper.”
“Oh, I am afraid Lady Westmoreland has arranged for me to go into supper with Count di Compressio.”
“The Sardinian fellow,” the duke said, in case anyone wondered about it.
“I see,” the lord said, a flash of irritation crossing his features. “I believe I may be engaged to take in Lady Letitia. But then I suppose nobody needs to strictly only talk to their assigned partner at this supper.”
“No I suppose not,” Valor said.
“You are not to be fooled by the term ‘supper,’ Lord Tramondeley,” Grace said.
“Heavens no,” Verity said.
“Dry cake, weak tea, sour lemonade, and stale bread,” Winsome said, laughing.
The look of consternation on the lord’s expression was almost amusing.
“It’s the worst sort of trickery, in my view,” the duke said. He pulled his flask from his pocket, opened it and took a swig. “Brandy,” he said, handing it to Lord Tramondeley. “Help yourself, there will be nothing better to be had.”
The lord did help himself to it. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
“How about you, Ledderbey?” the duke said, laughing.
“No, I thank you all the same,” Lord Ledderbey said.
“Your Grace, Lady Valor.”
Valor turned to find Count di Compressio. As she had seen him last time, his clothes were very regular, but cut just the smallest bit different. He looked very elegant.
“It’s the Sardinian,” the duke said.
“Your Grace, I have the honor of a dance with Lady Valor and then escorting her into supper.”
The duke laughed. “Wait until you see what it is. You won’t think it much of an honor.”
The count appeared perplexed, which did not particularly surprise Valor. The duke often perplexed people until they got to know him.
Lady Marchfield approached. “Roland,” she said flatly. “Girls, you all look very well.” She paused and stared at the count.
“Aunt,” Valor said, “this is Count di Compressio. We encountered him on our trip to Town and he was kind enough to give over the only private dining room available. Count, this is my aunt, Lady Marchfield.”
The count gave Lady Marchfield a rather elegant bow. “Charmed, Lady Marchfield,” he said.
“He’s a Sardinian, but we do not hold it against him,” the duke said. For good measure, he patted the pocket that held his brandy flask in case Lady Marchfield had missed its presence.
“I presume my butler gets on very well,” Lady Marchfield said to the duke.
“If by ‘gets on,’ you mean breaks everything in the house,” the duke said, “then your barnacle on a boat does splendidly.”
Lady Marchfield sniffed.
Lady Westmoreland brought Valor’s card to her and then listed for Lord Tramondeley who he was to escort through the dances. Valor glanced at her card and was gratified to see that Lord Tramondeley was marked down for the opening set.
The orchestra, which had been tuning for some time, suddenly stopped. Lady Salisbury would open the ball and she gave the signal that the dancing was set to begin. The first was to be a cotillion and she called the changes and the figure.
Valor was very afraid Lord Tramondeley would not be able to keep track of it all.
“Tramondeley! Count!”
Valor turned to find Lady Letitia bounding toward them.
She did not wish to think unkind thoughts, but the lady was very loud and dressed in such a manner that would make Madame LaFray frown.
She wore a salmon-colored taffeta with large ruffles on the sleeves and a complicated swirling decoration of silver embroidery at the hem. She looked a bit like a cake.
“Tramondeley,” Lady Letitia said, waving round a like-colored silk fan, “I will see you at supper. Lady Valor, how do you do? Count? Are we ready?”
“Ah, yes,” the count said. “I escort Lady Letitia for the opening of the ball.” He held his arm out and led the lady away.
“My God, she’s loud,” the duke said.
Lord Tramondeley laughed and led Valor to their places.
Thinking to put him at ease as they joined a square of three other couples, she said softly, “I will remind you of the steps as we get to them, Lord Tramondeley.”
“I thank you, but I believe I understand them.”
Valor was surprised by that. How could he? She’d seen how little he knew when she was at his house. She hoped the claim was not some sort of misplaced manly pride. One could say one was confident, but the dance would soon start and the truth would be there for all to see.
The music struck up. After the requisite bow and curtsy, Lord Tramondeley led her through the steps. Much to her surprise, he executed them perfectly and with an ease that suggested he was well-practiced.
Seeming to note her confusion, he bent his head and whispered, “I hired a dancing master who has been with me night and day. It was exhausting, but I would hardly allow myself to arrive here in the shape you last saw me.”
Valor laughed, as it occurred to her that the hackney she’d seen arriving for two days in a row had been the dancing master. That gentleman had been there for strangely extended periods. She could not say so, of course, else she admit to peering at his house from her window.
“I admire your preparation, Lord Tramondeley,” Valor said. “I am not sure another gentleman would have done the same.”
“Then that other gentleman would be rather foolish,” he said. “I’ve never had so many matrons staring at me in my life. They are even overhead in the gallery, peering down like hawks on the lookout for a mouse.”
Valor nodded. “You are a duke’s heir, they will be interested in you.”
“Why? It is not as if I am a prospect for any of them.”
“My sister Serenity would say they are queen bees. They like to have their hand in everything even if it has little to do with them.”
“Cornwall is a much simpler place.”
“As are the Dales. How strange that you will inherit the place and yet have never seen it.”
Lord Tramondeley led her through the figure and they returned to their place.
“I’ve never been that far north so do not have the first idea.
In any case, the duke seems a hale and hearty individual, so I do not think the question of inheritance will come up any time soon and I am only the presumptive.
He could remarry tomorrow and produce a son and then I am out. ”
Valor laughed at the idea. “I think it highly unlikely that my father will wed again. If he would do it, I suspect he would have done it long ago.”
Lord Tramondeley shrugged by way of reply and Valor got the idea he did not particularly care one way or the other.
“Perhaps it was unfair that he did not take you in,” Valor said. “Then you would have grown up there and it would be your natural home.”
“Which makes me think he might remarry at some point. Deuced awkward to have to push out the presumptive to make room for an heir apparent.”
Their turn came round again and the lord led her forward. It was really extraordinary how skilled he’d gotten. Nobody would ever know that just days ago he’d known next to nothing.
When they returned to their place, Valor said, “I suppose you would like to get back to Cornwall…back to taking your boat out at night.”
She longed for him to say he would not like it. She wished for him to say he’d given it up and was planning to take up rare book collecting.
He seemed pensive about it. “I would like to get back to harrowing the French, it seems a duty, you know. But I must think carefully on how and where to do it. I would not like to put Lord Ledderbey in danger.”
“In danger? Lord Ledderbey? I had not known he went out with you on the boat. Is that safe? He is an older gentleman.”
Lord Tramondeley laughed. “He does not go out with me, that is for me and my valet alone. However, I have been warned that the French are looking for my house and it is not clear if they wish to destroy my boat or me. I would not like Lord Ledderbey to be a casualty when he has been so kind to me.”
Valor felt almost frozen upon hearing that information. She had thought the danger was sailing out into the dark. She had never contemplated the idea that people staying safely on land would be in danger too.
“What are you to do, then? You cannot go back there.”
“Not for now. But there would be other places I could base myself. I just do not know what to do with Lord Ledderbey—he’s very fond of his home, but it is not safe for the time being.”
Valor was not forced to answer as it was their time to take a turn.
That was well, as she did not have an answer.
She’d hoped that Lord Tramondeley would think better of putting his life in danger in such a bizarre manner.
But he had not. He was thinking about where else he might base the operation.
They went on in silence from then on and Valor found herself very shaken.
She realized that all thought of Lord Tramondeley was to be dismissed.
Even if she were to put her bravest face on, she could not possibly sleep at night if there was always the lingering idea of the doors being broken down by the French.
It was impossible. She would be positively terrorized.
She also realized that perhaps she had been thinking about him more than she ought. She discovered herself let down that she should not think of him further.
*