Chapter 8
Her breasts in full bloom, his attention firmly riveted, Averil lightly laid her hand on his shoulder, even managed to soften her voice.
“My love, to be honest, until Teddy Jewel showed an interest in Camilla, I despaired of her wedding at all despite her very impressive dowry. She is off-putting. Teddy Jewel is a gift from God. Well, if not Teddy, of course there is Pilcher Gayson in Bath. He’s a possibility.
According to your sister, he is much taken with her.
She could choose which gentleman she preferred once she understands from you what she is expected to do. ”
“She is only nineteen, Averil. She’s had only one Season.
I happen to agree with her that there are no gentlemen hanging about who are worthy of her.
If they find her off-putting, as you say, then she finds them equally unacceptable.
I believe she said of Lord Steven, Plaxen’s son, that he was a dead bore whose only interest was in his waistcoat buttons.
” He paused. “She’ll be presented to the queen next month. ”
The presentation to the queen—that burned hot because Averil herself hadn’t been accorded that honor, despite her marriage to an important, well-regarded peer.
She plowed on. “As I said, most appropriate young men are put off by her. She readily voices her opinions and they’re usually contrary.
She sharpens her wit on them, which I’ve told her over and over she must not do because no gentleman wants to be out-talked and out-argued by a female, particularly a young one who has no sense.
If she doesn’t marry, Whit, you know she’ll be a millstone around our necks. ” Dramatic pause. “Forever.”
But she’s only nineteen. The words remained unspoken. His eyes riveted on her magnificent breasts, the sinking man finally managed to murmur, “Cam makes me laugh with her sharp wit. She is very funny and smart and when she offers an opinion, it is well thought-out.”
“She may be smart, but not in the right way. It’s a very big drawback.
And her striking a gentleman for being a bit too affectionate!
If she doesn’t curb her tongue, I strongly doubt she can bring either Pilcher Gayson or Teddy Jewel to the mark, and that means you’ll be forced to find a gentleman in great need of money to make living with her worth it or, as I said, she’ll remain at home, a spinster, seated with other spinsters and companions lining the wall of ballrooms. She will be an object of ridicule and pity.
And all will regard you in the same way. Think of poor Eliza and her future.”
Inspiration struck. Whit said, “Listen, my love, not all young gentlemen are put off by her. Why she met a young man today at Westminster who seemed quite impressed with her wit.”
Averil rolled right over him. “I knew it. She came to plead with you, didn’t she?
To let her stay in London? Of course she did.
And she found a man? A clerk? A secretary?
A perfect stranger of no account at all, yes, of course, and doesn’t that just prove my point.
She has no sense, Whit, taking up with a man with no chaperone.
You must hold firm. We mustn’t let Teddy escape, but if he does, we must make her encourage Pilcher Gayson in Bath. Both are proper gentlemen.
“And the queen? If Camilla doesn’t keep her mouth shut, the queen will not approve of her, and just what would be the consequences to you politically? And me socially?” She saw some from his expression she needed more.
Breasts on full display. “Listen, my love, Teddy is the heir to Viscount Dawes and there is some old family money, I inquired. Pilcher is the second son of the current Baron Riggs. His brother will take the title of course, and I’m told there is also sufficient family money.
I know one of them is her only means of salvation.
She would eventually become Lady Dawes or Mrs. Gayson.
“I believe we could offer her a choice—invite dear Teddy to dinner and you will order Camilla to apologize for clouting him. She could claim she was overcome by emotion. Tell her she must keep her tongue in her mouth, smile and agree with whatever he says. If she refuses, she goes to Pilcher Gayson in Bath.”
Whit would have said he’d rather have dinner with a drunk Whig, even the arrogant queen-favored Lord Melbourne, when Averil lightly laid her palm against his cheek, leaned up and kissed him, her lips parted, her tongue sliding into his mouth, her breasts pressed against his chest. It was enough, too much.
Whit wanted her so badly his brain died a painless death.
What had she said? Something about giving Cam a choice between that idiot Teddy Jewel and that other idiot Pilcher Gayson?
She kissed him again, rubbed against him.
She used her soft, steel voice. “Promise me you’ll speak to your daughter, tell her she must apologize to Teddy when he comes to dinner or she leaves for Bath on Saturday to Aunt Deveraux and to marry Pilcher Gayson.
Don’t you remember? Your sister wrote he’s mad for her, why I can’t imagine, but it’s a blessing.
But first, my love, there’s Teddy and for whatever reason, he appears to still want her. So do you agree?”
Whit would have agreed to having his feet cut off he was in such bad shape. “As you will, my darling.” And he took her arm and led her out of his study.
Cam eased out from behind a thick, long, golden drapery and stared at the closed door.
She’d known there would be unpleasantness when she’d arrived home and whisked herself off to her father’s study, not to her bedchamber, because the witch would find her too quickly.
She had to figure out what to do without her stepmother yelling in her face.
She knew she would have to be logical, give reasoned arguments.
But then her stepmother was coming into her father’s study and Cam had hidden herself behind the thick drapery.
Now, as she stood in the middle of her father’s sanctum, she realized she’d just witnessed the power a woman had over a man using her upper works, her tongue, and a soft, iron voice.
When she’d heard her father suck in his breath, she peeked out from the edge of the drapery, watched open-mouthed and learned.
It was amazing, like seeing a tree felled without a single axe strike.
Cam might not like Averil, but she was forced to recognize and admire a master strategist. From what she’d seen, what some part of her understood completely, her father hadn’t stood a chance.
But now she had to do something, and fast, because she knew if she didn’t, she was a goner.
As she paced her father’s study, she didn’t doubt for a moment that Osbourne, their butler with all-seeing eyes, the housekeeper Mrs. Willig who’d buried three husbands and could spot a dust mote from twenty feet, the footman Jeremy who was in love with Alice, the pert upstairs tweeny, the footman Henry, her champion, all of them knew what was going on upstairs in the viscount’s bedchamber in the middle of the day.
Not only that, they knew Cam was in big trouble and there was nothing they could do to help her.
What would her father do now? She knew to her feet if she didn’t do something fast, it was either Teddy The Toad or stargazy pie Pilcher.
At least she’d seen how a lady could control a man if the need ever arose.