Chapter Fourteen #2
St. John was shaking his head vigorously.
“I just heard at White’s that the duke has taken Lady Winsome to some old relation in Kent, leaving the youngest sister to the care of one of the older sisters.
Not surprising, what else is one to do with an errant daughter?
” St. John paused, then said, “Unless of course he will wish to send her further away. All the way to Brazil with me, perhaps?”
“Do not be absurd,” Leland said.
“Well now,” the dowager said, “I do like Lady Winsome and wish her settled reasonably. She cannot become a duchess, not after this. If Landry does not come through, then perhaps it is not the worst idea. St. John could certainly use the added infusion of funds and he really ought to have a wife if he is to be an ambassador. There are duties only a hostess can perform.”
Leland suppressed the urge to throw both of them from the house.
“I have no inclination to participate in these nonsensical speculations. I will get to the truth, and I am certain the truth is that Lady Winsome, and no doubt Landry too, are blameless. The ton talks too much and when they run out of truths, they invent things.”
He strode out of the room and left the two hens to gossip together.
It was frustrating that he could not solve the problem this minute, but with Landry unconscious and Lady Winsome gone to Kent, his hands were tied.
All he could do was await Landry’s return to the land of the living and Lady Winsome’s return to Town.
Assuming she was coming back to Town. If she did not appear at the masque, then he must locate her in Kent.
Though this situation was vexatious in the extreme, it had served to solidify his plans. He would see Lady Winsome, secure her, and on no account was she going to Brazil with his idiot cousin.
*
Mrs. Right was not precisely certain what she ought to do.
When Winsome had cut out letters to the word jumble from the scavenger hunt and Valor had such good luck unraveling it as the word “sewing,” the housekeeper had thought that might be just the thing to do with the mysterious hint in Mr. Wicket’s letter—Trulogap.
All along, she’d thought it was the name of a horse until Mr. Wicket had said it was a word jumble. She’d tried to unjumble it a few times with no luck.
She’d posed the idea of separate pieces of paper for each letter to Mr. Wicket and he’d written them down and cut them out.
They’d spread them across the servants’ hall dining table.
Then the footmen came in and thought it a good game, Cook had a look, even the housemaids made a show of staring and moving the letters around.
After much false starts, Mr. Wicket had unraveled it. Trulogap was Portugal.
At first, Mrs. Right had presumed it was not the right word, simply a word that could be made.
Mr. Wicket proved it otherwise though, when he’d pointed out that the letter was a warning about a gentleman on a dowry hunt, had specifically mentioned that gentleman might be susceptible to bribes on foreign shores, and Lord St. John was currently empty pockets and poised to become the ambassador to… Portugal.
So…she had made a bit of an error there. She’d been certain the letter was about Lord Manderbey and Trulogap was a horse he’d bet on.
That might be easily forgotten, had it not been for what she’d done to avenge her girl.
She’d had the idea that she might turn Winsome away from the gentleman completely by submitting a piece for the gossip pages of the newspaper.
It read that the banns had been read in Lord Manderbey’s home parish, and he was to wed Lady Edith Cullington.
In retrospect, perhaps that had been hasty. A bit quick off the mark, as it were.
The duke had returned from a fruitless visit to Lord Landry.
Apparently that fellow was indisposed, having fallen down a flight of stairs and knocked himself out.
That was not the really worrying part, though.
The duke had come in with the newspaper under his arm, laid it on the table, and Winsome had picked it up.
Mrs. Right had done her best to distract, providing conversation so Winsome might lay the paper down. If that were to happen, she would find a way to get hold of the paper and burn it. What she would do after that, she had not the first idea.
So far, the offending item sat on Winsome’s lap.
Whether Lord Manderbey had a gambling problem and got himself in debt or not, Mr. Wicket’s letter was not warning about him. Trulogap was not a horse. The man to be guarded against was Lord St. John.
What had she done? If she were successful in driving Winsome away from Lord Manderbey, would it result in her driving her girl toward Lord St. John? He’d been to the house, he’d brought flowers.
The duke had left the room with Valor, as she was determined to show her father the improvements she’d made to Sir Galahad’s bed. These improvements included several shawls draped over the top of the four poster and the evidence of two rows of knitting that would someday be a blanket.
Mrs. Right relocated herself next to Winsome. “Several things, my dear,” she said. “First, that letter I found in the cellar, the one we thought was a warning against Lord Manderbey.”
“Oh yes, and that awful horse he must have bet on, Trulogap.”
“Yes, that’s the one. Well, no surprise really that we would have leapt to that conclusion. However, it seems that Trulogap was a word jumble, just like ‘sewing’ was last night at the scavenger hunt. We were just an hour ago able to unscramble it and…it spells out Portugal.”
“Portugal? The only person who has mentioned Portugal…oh, it is Lord St. John.”
“Just so.”
“Hm, well that is good news. I am in no danger of succumbing to Lord St. John’s charms, whatever they might be, and am certainly not setting off for Brazil.
Of course, I suspect Lord Manderbey has got himself in rather deep with gambling, he has said enough to indicate it, but at least he has not lost it all on a horse called Trulogap. ”
“That is how I see it, yes.”
“Mrs. Right, you said there were several things?”
“Oh yes, I did, did I not? Well, as to the other thing, you know how hot I get when I feel like one of my own is in danger—”
“You did not mess with Lord Manderbey’s carriage springs as you did with Lord Thorpe?”
“Goodness, you knew that was me, did you?”
“I could not think who else it might have been.”
“No, no it was nothing like that.”
“Case moths. You sent case moths to his house. Or you changed his grocery order and enraged his wine merchant.”
Mrs. Right shook her head.
“Did you convince his valet he was to be let go? Or design an insulting print about him?”
“Not any of those things. You see, Winsome, I had become very afraid that you were not willing to give up Lord Manderbey, despite him being a terrible rogue. I could not help but imagine the disastrous future you would have and how much you would regret it. I had Mr. Wicket follow him and he was seen taking an expensive piece of jewelry into Rundell & Bridge and leaving it there. You see? He sold it.”
“Gracious, can things be that bad? It must have been one of the dowager’s pieces.” Winsome tapped her chin. “I wonder how much the dowager knows about Lord Manderbey’s unfortunate gambling problem.”
“That I cannot say. Naturally, I was determined to save you from going forward with the idea of trying to change him. If he is willing to sell jewelry, well the problem must be very serious. I was all but forced to take steps.”
Winsome looked at her enquiringly. Mrs. Right took the newspaper from her hands and flipped through its pages.
“I might have planted a story on the gossip page that Lord Manderbey was to wed Lady Edith. Ah yes, here it is.”
“Oh, Mrs. Right,” Winsome said, reading the paragraph the housekeeper had pointed out.
“I know, I know, it was a mistake. Even if Lord Manderbey is a rogue, I should not have done it.”
“Or involved Lady Edith. I believe Lord Landry is very set on her and he is not, well he is not a very sturdy character.”
“Yes, I did think of that, but then he is unconscious at the moment so will not know of it.”
“And Lady Edith? Lord Manderbey?”
“Now I did think about that too. If you are really set on Lord Manderbey then I suppose I cannot stop you. If that is the case, I thought perhaps we kill two birds with one stone. We could put another piece in refuting the news of the engagement to Lady Edith, and we could hint that the report of it comes from the same person who was just now sending round the false gossip of Lord Landry compromising a lady at Sir Jonathan’s scavenger hunt. ”
“I see,” Winsome said. “So it would seem as if there is a villain out there making all sorts of mischief.”
“Well it’s not wrong, is it? Somebody has sent round that story about you and Lord Landry.”
“I am afraid it must have come from the dowager, though. She is the only one that saw us.”
“I am doubtful about that. She’s a duchess and those sorts like to keep things quiet when one of their own is involved. The dowager would not like Lord Manderbey’s name associated with it and he’s paid you marked attention.”
“I cannot think who else would have said something.”
“It could have been anybody in the garden noting that you had been gone for a period of time and then you did say your hair was a bit disheveled.”
Winsome nodded sadly. “From crawling round the retiring room looking for a secret passage. Oh, and then Lord Landry did say there was someone else in the billiards room. A lord, though he could not recall his name.”
“Well, in any case, somebody has invented the story going round about the scavenger hunt. This ridiculous bit of gossip I put in the newspaper gives us a chance to negate it.”
“I suppose it’s all we can do,” Winsome said. “I was hoping Lord Manderbey might come to the house to inquire about it. Why does he not come? Is it because he would believe such a report?”
“Do not fret over it, my girl,” Mrs. Right said. “I will be off to put in the new story.” She paused for a moment. “You do not suppose the villain could be Lord St. John? The letter does warn us of him.”
“I cannot think so,” Winsome said. “If the culprit is the other lord in the billiards room, it could not have been Lord St. John. Lord Landry could not recall the name, but he knows St. John quite well.”
“And you are certain you wish to go forward with Lord Manderbey, even though you know about his gambling? Before the season, you did say, repeatedly, that you would not be taken in by a rogue.”
“I did say that,” Winsome said. “I meant it, too. And yet, I feel there is a lot of good in Lord Manderbey, if only he can get this one difficulty under control. In any case, I tried to talk myself into turning away and was entirely unsuccessful.”
Mrs. Right sighed. She saw clearly enough that there was no point in further argument. Of all the duke’s girls, Winsome was perhaps the most stubborn in her opinions. The housekeeper also saw clearly, from living in the world longer, that the chances of a rogue reforming himself were slim indeed.
She was very afraid that Winsome would be the one daughter who ended settled unhappily.