Chapter Two #2
“I do know the difference, Tilburn. One possesses endless power, holds the fate of nations in his hand, and is universally feared by saint and sinner alike. The other is—”
“The Almighty,” James drawled. He knew the quip well, having heard similar versions for years. “You and the duke may not have qualms about this arrangement, but what about Miss Lancaster? Does she not deserve some say in the scheme?”
Father poured himself a bit of the amber-colored liquor.
“She cannot be ignorant of how Society works and must realize how ill-suited she is to the task at hand. Her brother-in-law has, no doubt, enlisted the aid of many young people to act as friend to her. His rallying of the troops will not be done without her knowledge.”
“You make her sound coldheartedly calculating.” James didn’t at all like the picture his father painted.
“Who on Society’s upper rungs isn’t?” Father shrugged as he took a drink. “We may or may not like it, but this is the way of things. If we wish to walk in exalted circles, we must know how the game is played.”
James shook his head. “I don’t care to play that game.”
Father walked to the tall window, his glass yet in his hand.
“I don’t care for it myself.” James had never heard his father express such a sentiment.
“But you cannot comprehend the difficulties I have passed through because our family lacks standing. Some things, important things, can only be accomplished with the right connections. Those in a position of wealth and influence can open locked doors.”
“What doors of any importance have truly been closed to us, Father?” This was an old complaint, one James had heard throughout his childhood.
He’d actually fully believed it until coming to Town and seeing the truth of things for himself.
“We may not be regularly called to attend the Queen’s drawing rooms nor invited to the most exclusive balls and entertainments, but we have not been denied membership at our club.
We receive more invitations during the Season than we can possibly accept.
With a seat in Lords, our family has the opportunity to have a say in the future of the kingdom.
” Of course, Father very seldom attended Lords, the very reason James felt the necessity of making the acquaintance of party leaders and policy makers.
Someday the neglected Techney seat would be his own. “These are not insignificant, Father.”
But his father had already begun shaking his head. “You are not here often enough nor were you old enough to remember the very real limitations of our position.”
“We are not royalty,” James reminded him. “Of course our standing has limits.”
“Your mother comes from the gentry,” Father said.
“Yes, I know. A very respectable family.”
Father took another drink. “Respectable, yes, but in the eyes of the ton, nearly irrelevant. She was not raised in Society. She has no connections there. Her first two Seasons in Town came after our marriage. She hadn’t so much as a friend among any of the ladies in the upper crust. She held at-homes that no one attended.
She never received vouchers for Almack’s.
Though I was heir apparent to an earl, I hadn’t the standing to ease her way. ”
James’s heart ached at the thought of his quiet, sensitive mother enduring such humiliation. She took difficulties very much to heart, easily wounded and hurt.
Father drained the contents of his cup. “She avoids London as though the plague yet raged here.” He shook his head. “I’ve never been able to convince her to return, though I cannot blame her. Society’s proverbial door is closed to her, and neither you nor I have the ability to open it.”
“Mother has not been to Town since before I began coming, and that’s been six years.” James had always assumed she simply didn’t care to leave home.
“She has not been to Town in twenty years, Tilburn. The very suggestion brings her to tears.” Father set his empty cup on the windowsill, his gaze on the cobblestone street below.
“I always assumed she did not come because her health is so often poor.”
“Do not be a simpleton,” Father said. “Her unreliable health ought to have propelled her to town. Here, she would have access to the best physicians, the best care, and yet she stays away. Why do you suppose that is, Tilburn?”
James had long ago learned to recognize when his father was posing a rhetorical question. He no longer wasted his breath attempting to answer.
“She cannot bear the rejection or the loneliness. I have attempted to convince her to come. What have you, her oldest son, done to ease her way?”
“What could I have done? I didn’t know any of this.”
Father held him with a steely gaze. “And now that you do know? To have the right friend, even one friend of influence, would make all the difference in the world.”
James paced away, his mind full of revelations and possibilities and questions. “The duke would smooth the way for her?” No. That didn’t sound right. Everyone knew the duke rather despised people.
“Not the duke, but the duchess. She herself comes from humble origins but made a name for herself among the ton. She would be unlikely to look down on your mother for having married above herself. Her Grace could whisper a word or two in the right ears, and your mother would have the allies she needs.”
James leaned against the tall back of the chair he’d sat in earlier.
He’d not given a second thought to his mother’s isolation in the country.
She’d always insisted that she had no desire to go to Town, and he’d taken her at her word.
Had she really avoided it all these years out of humiliation, for want of friends?
She must have longed to join him when he’d made his annual trip to London.
She had needed competent physicians. If only he’d known, he might have done something.
But what could he have done? His connections were not only mostly political but mostly male, though he did receive invitations to a good number of balls and soirees, being an unmarried heir to a title with a small but respectable fortune awaiting him.
Enough of the matchmaking mamas in Town viewed him as a relatively good prospect for their daughters, provided someone of greater significance didn’t come around.
But he didn’t think he was enough in demand to warrant invitations being extended to his mother for teas and ladies’ entertainments.
You haven’t the ability to unlock those doors.
“The duke has given you the opportunity to help your mother, to give her a taste of Society, a friend or two. In London, she could receive a doctor’s care.
You might improve her entire life, and yet you refuse because it would be uncomfortable.
” Father’s reprimand hit its mark. “Are you truly so unfeeling?”
With something of a sinking feeling, James realized his father was more right than he’d thought.
Here was an opportunity to do something for his family, and he was refusing.
Surely he could undertake something so simple as being a friend to a young lady.
The duke had suggested a courtship but did not appear to be actually requiring one.
“Must I pretend I am calling of my own volition?” The hint of dishonesty was the only part of the arrangement that truly bothered him.
He would be very circumspect in his attentions so no one seeing him would believe him truly courting her.
But to feign a connection between them when none existed was not precisely aboveboard.
“You cannot arrive at their home declaring you have come only because the duke forced you to do so.” Father shook his head, a scold clear in the gesture. “While that may be the truth, it is hardly a gentlemanly sentiment to throw at a young lady.”
James allowed a smile. Though the conversation hadn’t truly been a friendly one—they never were—it had been an improvement over most. “I don’t know that I would have explained things in quite those words.”
“I should hope not.” Father absentmindedly tipped his empty glass back and forth. “You needn’t pretend the two of you are the very closest of friends. Find a happy compromise.”
For a moment, his determination wavered.
But then he thought of Mother, alone in Lancashire.
Not even Bennett, James’s younger brother, remained at home to keep her company, having his own admittedly dilapidated estate.
With the right connections, Mother might one day come to Town rather than remain behind on her own. She might at last regain her health.
“If I am careful, I could likely manage to walk that line,” James said.
Father began spinning his signet ring once more. He dropped a firm hand on James’s shoulder. “A wise course, Tilburn. Kielder’s sister-in-law will benefit from your assistance. You’ll have a fine set of new acquaintances. Your mother may even, in time, benefit from these efforts you are making.”
James nodded. Spending a little time with someone he hardly knew wasn’t much to ask, really. And if the duke and his sister-in-law both knew the reason for James’s attention, then he wasn’t deceiving them.
This will work out fine. Just fine.
He hoped.