Chapter One #2
“I do not doubt you,” Caroline said with a casual embrace.
“Now, come and sit beside me.” She caught Audrey’s hand as Caroline had always done.
“Later, I shall assist you in organizing your traveling trunks.” Caroline tugged Audrey down beside her.
“I shall be quite jealous, for I am not likely to arrive in London in time to view your transformation into a sheik’s lady. ”
“Oh, my.” Audrey caught the embarrassment rushing to her cheeks.
“I had not considered your costume for the masque.” Before that idea had fully materialized, another realization arrived.
“Shall I be required to dance with a gentleman?” Audrey became quite breathless with the thought of being on a handsome gentleman’s arm.
“You know how to dance, you silly pea goose,” Caroline teased.
“We shared a dance master. You know the steps, likely better than I do. You shall be the talk of London. I shall know great doldrums if you meet a handsome gentleman and he falls madly in love with you at first sight. You shall marry him and leave me behind forever.” Her cousin’s lip pouted out in disapproval.
“No one shall wish to marry a woman with my coloring. What man would want his children to inherit my hair color or my freckles?”
“Any man who did not would be an idiot,” Caroline declared, “and no woman should marry an imbecilic man.”
Navan had spent more than a few hours with his long-time mistress, Miss Julia Baldwin.
“I do not know when next you might see me,” he had said as he dressed.
As usual, the family was to meet at Duncan’s house for supper.
Navan had been quite moved by what he had viewed and heard at John Bellingham’s trial today, thus, his visit to Julia to clear his mind by clearing his body.
However, their joining did not work as he had hoped.
Bellingham had shot the British Prime Minister before an audience of members of Parliament and then stood by, with great dignity, and waited to be arrested.
The man would surely hang for his crime, when, instead, someone should assist Bellingham with his obvious mania.
Society was not kind to those with a sickness of the mind nor with a sickness of the heart.
Therefore, Navan was a bit later arriving at Duncan Place than he intended, but not so late as to suffer what Navan and his brothers referred to as “the evil eyebrows.” Thompson had entered the house less than a minute after Navan.
“I thought I heard everyone,” Richard said as he greeted them.
“You just wish us to hurry along so Mr. Fields might serve,” Theodora declared.
“You heard my stomach growl,” Richard admitted.
Within a minute, they were all seated. Duncan, as was typical, asked Thompson of his opinion of what had transpired at Bellingham’s trial.
Navan was glad not to be asked the question, for he was still conflicted regarding the proceedings.
As an Irishman, he was not sad to know Spencer Perceval was no longer the Prime Minister, though he had never wished the man dead.
Just gone away forever, his mind corrected.
Navan continued to listen to Thompson’s evaluations of today’s testimony until his brother said, “Naturally, the trial did not end today, but the outcome appears inevitable.” Navan agreed, but he was not yet ready to express his opinion of the trial and Bellingham’s sanity.
Navan required more time to think upon it.
Thankfully, changing the subject, Aaran had the most interesting piece of news. “The French count, who was supposed to arrive in a matter of days, is not a count, but rather a marquis.”
Meanwhile Richard Orson shared his own news. “The French marquis is to attend Lord and Lady Godfrey’s masque this upcoming Thursday evening, which means the man should arrive by the first part of next week.”
“After supper, I would like a few minutes with each of you regarding this marquis’s arrival,” Duncan instructed.
“We must learn the man’s intent in coming to London.
Is he another impoverished French aristocrat hoping to use his title as a means to maintain his existence?
What is his name? Did either of you learn it? ”
“Honfleur,” Richard supplied, “but I have never heard of that part of France.”
“Was that his purpose or is he a legitimate marquis?” Duncan asked what they must learn first.
After discussing all they had learned and still needed to learn, it was decided all but Graham would attend the ball, including Duncan’s daughter Theodora and Richard’s betrothed, Lady Emma.
Navan and Alexander would be expected to woo Lord Honfleur’s daughter and niece.
As this was a familiar role for Navan, he simply nodded his understanding, but he had been surprised when Alexander had volunteered to woo the marquis’s niece.
Generally, Alexander would not be involved, and Navan wondered what had occurred for Duncan to permit these changes.
It was customarily him and Richard Orson in the role of a fake courtship, but as Richard would marry in a couple of weeks, Alexander was to assume the task.
What Navan wanted to know was whether Duncan wished to expand Alexander’s role in the investigations or whether such was Duncan’s means of saying the assumption Alexander and Duncan’s daughter Theodora would marry had come to an end.
As Navan departed Duncan’s home that evening, he mumbled his complaints as he climbed into his coach.
“Hopefully, Marksman and Theodora do not create more drama than necessary. I am not cut from the same cloth as them. I am only required to be in England for the legislative season. Otherwise, I am always an Irishman. Unlike Marksman, I have nothing to prove to the world.”