15
“Duchess, I have not seen your husband. Where is he? Has he arrived yet?”
Jo smiled placatingly at Lady Clopton. The lady was not the first to ask, nor was she wrong to. Where the devil was Robert?
He had sent a note that he would meet her at the Cloptons’ soiree. But Jo had been there for two hours now. Alone. Smiling and smiling and smiling until her cheeks hurt. While she searched frantically for Robert and offered the same platitudes over and over again.
She did not know most of the people there.
Lady Clopton had introduced her to a few in the beginning, then had another of her guests walk Jo around and introduce her to the rest. Jo had looked at the door every few minutes, expecting to see Robert there, even though the butler had not announced him.
“Something must have kept him. I know he had a meeting about the final session in the House of Lords,” Jo told her hostess as she fought the urge to wring her hands.
Perhaps something had happened, she suddenly realized. Could he have been in an accident on the way there?
“Final session? But they are only discussing the Simpson Divorce Act and the Bakewell Inclosure Act. There can hardly be much to discuss in terms of how they are going to vote,” Lady Clopton told Jo genuinely confused.
“Clopton will be voting against the divorce of course and for the enclosure, obviously.”
Jo opened her mouth, but had no idea what Robert would vote for, nor why he had felt the need to discuss it with others beforehand. If she was to guess, he would at least vote for the divorce, perhaps against the enclosure, although she was not certain what his stand was on that.
Did some of his land come from enclosures where smallholders had lost their land?
She understood that it meant farming became more efficient, but it also meant leaving people without land and having to seek employment rather than live off the land like they used to.
It seemed a lot more complex to her than what Lady Clopton made it out to be.
But Jo was not going to discuss politics with the woman.
“I cannot say. Perhaps it was merely a formality,” she offered with a fake smile that turned into a real one as she saw Thornston walk toward them.
The always handsome viscount was looking extremely well in a black jacket and breeches paired with a dark green waistcoat.
All of his clothes seemed chosen to emphasize his light brown curls and dark brown eyes.
“Ah, there is Lord Thornston, perhaps he knows where my husband is.”
After they had all formally greeted each other, Thornston managed very swiftly to charm Lady Clopton by complimenting her party, then pointing out the shortage of punch in an off-handed remark that made the lady leave to fix it immediately.
Jo turned to him as soon as Lady Clopton had left them.
“Your husband is in my house. I am afraid he is feeling unwell,” Thornston told her below his breath.
“Is he ill?” Jo whispered and felt an odd urge to rush to his side.
“Eh, no, not quite,” Thornston said and did not meet her eyes. “He… eh… he is drunk, Your Grace, to put it plainly.”
“Drunk?” Jo repeated as if she had never heard the word.
She had not thought Robert was one to overindulge, but as she was coming to realize, there was a lot she did not know about him.
“Yes, I believe I am partially to blame. We shared a bottle of wine over dinner, then some port and whisky afterwards.”
“Oh, well…” Jo muttered and looked at the many finely dressed people around them.
What was she supposed to do? She did not like the thought of having to spend more time at the soiree alone, deflecting questions about Robert’s whereabouts.
Particularly not since he had chosen to drink himself into a stupor rather than attending.
Jo sighed through her nose. It had been his bloody idea to participate, yet he could not even summon the decency to show up. He had to know how difficult this was for her. Did he not?
“I can talk to someone about having your carriage ready in half an hour. You will say your goodbyes to the people you need to and then leave. I can escort you home, if you wish to,” Thornston told her.
Jo offered him a grateful smile, relieved that he so readily took control of the situation. They had never needed to make a strategic retreat when they visited her uncle’s friends in Hampshire. It was yet another situation she needed to master in her new life.
“Thank you,” Jo told Thornston emphatically as he settled across from her in Robert’s carriage half an hour later.
“My pleasure.” Thornston smirked in a charming tone of voice Jo had heard him use with practically all women.
“Is Robert… will he be fine?” Jo asked, her irritation momentarily giving way to concern.
“Yes,” Thornston told her with a smile. “When I left, he was already snoring.”
The mention of a sleeping Robert should not have made her blush, but the image seemed so intimate. Jo could feel her cheeks warming at the thought. She hoped that the hoppling light from the carriage lantern was too dim for Thornston to notice.
“Thank you for helping me. I am sorry you missed the rest of the soiree.”
Thornston waved her comment away.
“I wasn’t invited to the soiree.”
“Where were you going?” Jo asked.
He was dressed to go out. Perhaps he had done so simply to come to her aid.
He was an even greater friend to Robert than she had thought.
She remembered Robert’s story of how Thornston had read the letters when Philomena had fallen ill.
There was much more to him than the charming dandy he portrayed himself as to the outside world.
“Wouldn’t you like to know, curious Jo?” he teased her flirtatiously.
Jo could not help but roll her eyes at him while she wondered why it was so much easier to speak to Thornston than Robert. Perhaps because she knew Thornston had no hidden agenda with what he said or how he said it.
“Tell me something else then,” she requested, speaking slowly to allow her mind to catch up and find a suitable topic.
“I am not spilling any of your husband’s secrets,” Thornston interrupted her with a smirk before she had a chance to speak.
“I was not going to ask you to,” Jo countered.
The thought had not crossed her mind, but now that she knew Thornston did know Robert’s secrets she was curious.
“Tell me another secret then. Lady Margaret more than insinuated that Lord Thistleworth is not the father of Lady Thistleworth’s unborn child. ”
Thornston scoffed and grinned at the same time.
“That is hardly a secret.”
Jo raised her eyebrows in question, a little shocked that he was not surprised.
“The three eldest children are believed to be Thistleworths’, but it is a public secret that the last four, or five that is, are not.”
“Whose are they?”
Thornston shrugged.
“The Thistleworths have a very happy marriage: they do not interfere with each other’s affairs, and Lord Thistleworth accepts all children born from his wife’s indiscretions.”
Jo’s eyes widened in shock.
“London is a lot more decadent than Hampshire I gather,” Thornston teased her.
Jo smiled shyly and nodded. People in Hampshire had affairs as well. Of course they had. She had heard gossip about it from time to time, but she could not imagine anyone being so open about it. And particularly not the husband accepting that his wife had children with other men.
“Why would he though, Lord Thistleworth?”
“Accept the children?” Thornston asked and Jo nodded. “Rumor has it that he likes having a large brood of children but not creating them.”
Jo blushed at the brazen topic and looked out the window at the dark streets to hide it. She tried to make sense of the statement. From what she had understood from Beatrice, men enjoyed the act a lot and wanted to do it often and frequently.
“Why?” she dared to ask and chanced a glance at Thornston. He did not look scandalized by her question.
“He prefers men over women. Or at least one particular man I am told. Perhaps he does like women sometimes. You would have to at least a little to father three children, wouldn’t you?”
Jo’s cheeks were flaming by the time he had finished speaking and the grin on Thornston’s face told her that he could tell. Jo opened the window to let some fresh air in. The stench of the city was not as bad now that the sun was down.
“I know you are not going to tell me any of Robert’s secrets…
” Jo began hesitantly and tried to gauge Thornston’s reaction as she spoke.
He lifted an eyebrow which seemed both confirmation and him urging her to continue.
“But will you at least tell me whether this is normal for him? To drink so much that he cannot attend a party he has committed to. I am starting to realize that I know so little of him and…”
How could she tell Robert’s best friend that she was anxious about the man she had married?
“This is not like him,” Thornston told her quietly, no charming or flirting note to his voice now. “Robert is a good man. You have nothing to fear.”
Jo nodded and tried to offer a grateful smile although it was more just a lift of the corners of her mouth.
She did not like how easily Thornston had been able to detect her concern yet was relieved by his reassurance.
The carriage came to a stop and Jo was spared from further conversation that would most likely embarrass her as the door was opened by a footman.
“Thank you for accompanying me… and enlightening me,” she mumbled before she left the carriage.