Chapter 5
Ryder Sherbrooke looked up to see Alex walking beside a tall young lady he’d never seen before.
And here he’d left Alex sitting comfortably on a bench but an hour before, by himself.
He shook his head, Sophie wouldn’t be surprised.
She’d told him most every young unmarried girl in Upper Slaughter was in love with Alex.
When Ryder had laughed, she told him so far Alex had received twelve pairs of knitted socks and so many hand-embroidered handkerchiefs with his initials he’d had to pile them on the top of his clothes’ chest at the foot of his bed.
And all the children made great sport, teasing him mercilessly.
Ryder was only half listening to his friend, Harold Augustus Rohman, Lord Whitsonby, Whit to his friends, his blue blood mixing nicely with his business acumen.
He was blissfully remarried to a remarkably pretty lady, so Ryder had heard, and much younger than he was.
Whit stopped in his diatribe on the influence of Lord Melbourne over the young queen, sighed when he recognized the lady striding beside a strange man coming toward them, shook his head, said, his voice philosophical, “Ah, here comes my youngest daughter, Camilla. I must admit to you I’m not surprised she’s here and not on her way to Bath.
” Whit sighed. “She’s here to talk me around to her side, something she’s quite good at.
I tried to tell Averil she wouldn’t go, but go she must, according to my wife, for her sister’s sake, and why was that I wondered.
Forgive me for airing personal matters. Ah, I wonder who that young man is.
A tall chap, handsome I suppose, well dressed, looks like a young gentleman.
I don’t believe I’ve ever met him before.
At least Henry is close, ready to attack if the young man becomes forward, not that my daughter would need his assistance.
Cam smacked young Teddy Jewel’s nose, giving him a nosebleed.
He was newly down from Oxford and feeling his oats and the idiot tried to pull her behind a statue in the garden.
” He sighed again. “She is so very friendly, you see, and some gentlemen can easily form the wrong impression. Her mother—ah, stepmother—despairs of her, tells me Camilla will be lucky to attach a clerk in the city if she doesn’t learn to shut her mouth and become more pleasant to look at, like her sister, Eliza.
Myself, I think Cam looks like her mother, my glorious Tansia, a beauty to her bones, she was, but of course I can’t very well say that to my bride.
I can but hope my Averil will come to appreciate my remarkably smart daughter.
But oil and water, that’s what they are and I don’t know which is which.
” And Whit shrugged elegant shoulders, laughed.
“Not that it matters. Ladies are an enigma and will remain so, I doubt not, for the next millennia and beyond. Maybe forever.”
Ryder said, “I’m pleased to inform you there is no need to worry about the young man with your daughter, Whit.
He is my ward, Alex Ivanov, the young gentleman I mentioned to you who excels in improving existing mechanical technology, trains his main interest. You’ll find him very well behaved and very smart. ”
Whit looked thoughtful. “You also said he has amazing financial intuition. What do you mean exactly?”
“Alex has the ability to determine if a proposed project is viable and if it has a good chance to be profitable. He is able to calculate costs remarkably well. Like you, as I said, he is very interested in trains and improving the working parts, making them safer and more efficient. He recognized them as our future when he was only a lad and newly arrived on our shores.” It was enough.
Ryder had primed the pump, Whit was hooked.
Whit never took his eyes off his approaching daughter.
“You said his parents sent him to you from Ukraine during their revolution. So many uprisings in that part of the world, one cannot keep up. Ah, too much heated blood, unlike the English, a steady bunch, hot-blooded only in the bedroom and on the battlefield. A pity his parents didn’t survive. However did you meet them?”
Ryder said smoothly, “I met Nicola and Maria Ivanov in Paris after Waterloo. It was my pleasure to welcome their only son into my home. It was good for him to be around all my other children at Brandon House as he was grieving and lonely when he arrived in England.” He knew Whit was too polite to ask if his parents had sent funds with him.
Whit said, “I’d forgotten your penchant for picking up st—er, abandoned children. An excellent thing, of course, albeit rather odd. Naturally, you are to be commended.”
Of course Ryder was commended and not derided since he was, after all, the Honorable Ryder Sherbrooke, an earl’s second son, brother of the current Earl of Northcliffe, a very powerful gentleman in the government and in Society.
He imagined Whit wanted to know if Alex had picked up criminal bad habits from the orphans in his care, but he said only, “With his permission, we changed his name from Alexi Ivanov to Alex Ivanov. In any case, Alex gives me great pleasure as he does all the children. As I mentioned to you, he is not only an amiable young man, and his love of trains is, of course, one of your passions. He is also well on his way to becoming rich with his financial investments.” Had he primed the pump too much?
“Hello, sir.”
“Ah, Alex, I’d like you to meet the Earl of Whitsonby.”
Alex gave him a crisp bow, perfectly executed since Sophie had taught him. “My lord.”
Whit eyed him up and down and nodded slowly. He turned to his daughter. “And, Ryder, this is my youngest daughter, Lady Camilla Rohman. Camilla, Mr. Sherbrooke.”
She gave Ryder a lovely curtsey. “Sir, it is a pleasure to meet you. Alex tells me you can charm the socks off a monkey.”
Ryder laughed, couldn’t help himself.
Cam liked his laugh, full and rich, an honest, robust laugh.
Mr. Sherbrooke was tall, sapling slender and straight, blue eyes and lovely silver threading through his dark hair.
He was handsome, but not as handsome as her papa.
“Sir, have you ever wished you weren’t the second son and thus the Earl of Northcliffe? ”
“Cam!”
Ryder was charmed and amused. “No, never. Thankfully God spared me from that fate, Lady Camilla. My brother fills the role splendidly and I am free of all his endless string of complications and expectations. He works two secretaries to the bone.”
She nodded in approval, the minx.
Whit hugged his daughter, set her back, gave her a little shake.
“Well, my pet, not in Bath, are you? I should forbid you the library for a fortnight, but”—he sighed—“knowing you I cannot say this is a surprise. Fact is I didn’t want you to leave.
Even Averil can’t rub my shoulders like you do, dig in deep to all those tight muscles, or sing to me after dinner while playing a Scottish ballad and make the world seem less repellent, not to mention your creative retelling of the Myth of Sisyphus.
Ah, I can’t understand why Averil doesn’t enjoy it.
All right, tell me how you managed to sneak out of the house before Averil could catch you. ”
Cam said matter-of-factly, “Papa, you know she wouldn’t try to catch me, she’d push me out the door, lock it after me and say good riddance. Henry saw me and followed to keep me safe, so please do not berate him.”
Whit looked pained. “I do wish you would try to get along with your stepmother, but that’s neither here nor there—enough airing of our private family matters—and that’s my second apology to Mr. Sherbrooke. Now, Cam, however do you come to be in the company of this young man?”
The young man, Alex, was charmed. The daughter spoke with the wit and depth of her father.
One would likely know these two after only one meeting.
Cam gave him a grin, turned to her father.
“It began to rain and Mr. Ivanov very gallantly offered to shield me with his umbrella. It was quite impossible not to introduce ourselves, even chat a bit. Everything proceeded quite properly and Henry remained all attention at my elbow, on the alert, ready to pound Mr. Ivanov if he became improper.”
Well used to his daughter’s verbal agility since she’d inherited it from him, Whit didn’t have much trouble keeping to the point.
“Now, Daughter, you came here to find me, your plan to convince me to take your side and allow you to remain in London.”
“Well, if you must boil my motives down to the bleached bones of absolute truth, yes, sir.” And she took a step closer to her father, her mother’s beautiful eyes on his face. “Papa, you’re my only hope.”