Bachelor Duke. Mary Nichols

heard the Duke give a low groan. He had been bested and she was not sure whether to feel satisfaction or mortification, but beggars could not be choosers, she told herself. He had come to his feet and she rose too and faced him. ‘I do not expect to be given a come-out, your Grace. I am determined never to marry. I accept your offer of a home only because I have no choice, but rest assured I shall be as little trouble to you as possible.’ She turned to Lady Harley. ‘My lady, I am grateful for your intervention and with your permission will return tomorrow, if you tell me a time that will be convenient.’

      ‘Any time will do. I have no pressing engagements.’

      ‘Then I shall bring Sophie at three,’ Lady Myers said. ‘Good day, Lady Harley. Good day, your Grace. Come, Sophie.’

      Sophie curtsied and followed Lady Myers to the door. An imp of mischief made her turn as she reached it. ‘My lord, what was it the Regent gave the little boy yesterday?’

      ‘Little boy?’ he queried, then smiled as he remembered. ‘A silver button from his waistcoat. His Highness’s coats are so tight the buttons are always popping off.’

      ‘The child seemed bemused. What did you say to him?’

      ‘I told him it was real silver and he should sell it and buy his family a good dinner before someone stole it from him. Why do you ask?’

      ‘Oh, I rather envied the little one that he had managed to elicit a kind word from you.’ And with that, she sailed out on the heels of Lady Myers.

      His initial annoyance gave way to a wry grin as he turned and saw his sister laughing.

      ‘You deserved that,’ she said.

      ‘No doubt I did. But I wonder if you know what you have taken on. It will not be easy. She is too proud and outspoken for her own good.’

      ‘Of course I know, but that is due to her strange upbringing. She is a delightful girl and when I have done something about her clothes and shown her how to go on, she will take beautifully, you’ll see.’

      ‘Perhaps. She certainly needs someone to look to her wardrobe. Why, that yellow gown Lady Myers was wearing would have suited her better than that colourless lilac. I had begun to wonder if they had exchanged wardrobes or perhaps their maid was half-cut and confused the two.’

      Harriet smiled. ‘James it is not kind to make fun of her. She was in desperate straits…’

      ‘She could have stayed with Lady Myers.’

      ‘And been an unpaid companion because that is what she would have become and, although the woman did say she would bring her out, I doubt she would have made a very good fist at it. And think how badly that would reflect on us.’

      ‘I know, which is why I agreed, but I warn you if she does or says anything to embarrass us or our friends, she will be packed off to Dersingham Park and I do not care what social occasions you have planned for her. Is that understood?’

      ‘Yes, but I don’t know why you are so gloomy about it.’

      He did not know either, he admitted to himself, as he left her to meet Richard Summers at White’s. How could a slip of a girl make him feel so old, so weighed down with cares? She meant nothing to him and he would not need to see anything of her; Harriet would look after her. It must be a family trait, this stubbornness, he decided, for his sister had taken the girl’s future on herself, dismissing his misgivings with a wave of the hand as if they were no more important than dandelion seed. She was right of course, he could not have turned the chit away without bringing down the censure of the haut monde, but, having done his duty, he could forget her.

      Richard was sitting in the library of the club reading a newspaper, a glass of cognac at his side. He looked up as James flung himself into a chair opposite him. ‘You look as though you need a drink.’ He reached for the bottle and filled the empty glass beside it. ‘Ellen playing up again, is she?’

      ‘Ellen?’ His mind had been so much on Sophie he had forgotten his erstwhile mistress, who seemed unable to understand their affair was at an end. She had done her best to embarrass him in public, hoping to wriggle back in his favour, but he had never shared his mistresses with anyone, except their husbands, naturally, and he did not propose to make an exception now, especially as the man she had been seeing was Alfred Jessop, his cousin and heir. ‘No, nothing to do with her.’

      ‘Then what has given you that air of distraction? It can’t be his Highness, can it? You usually take his whims and tantrums into your stride…’

      James gave a grunt. ‘He is behaving as if he had won the war single-handed and accepting the adulation of his subjects as his due. I cannot make up my mind if he is deluding himself or trying to persuade those around him that he is not the most unpopular ruling prince the country ever had. It makes my job doubly difficult.’ He drank his brandy in one swallow, holding out his glass for a refill. ‘Yesterday was a case in point. Why was it necessary to go to Dover to meet Louis and, when he did, to keep stopping and making a fool of himself and laying himself open to an assassin?’

      ‘Nothing happened, did it? No one took a shot at him, no one attempted to pull him out of the coach and tear him to shreds. The abuse is only verbal and he seems to be able to ignore that.’

      ‘He can, but I can’t. Not that Louis is any better. We had no sooner delivered him to Grillon’s, than he sent for a chair and insisted on sitting in the vestibule holding court like some fat potentate. Good God, it’s a hotel where anyone can come and go. His Highness was with him some of the time and they were sitting targets. It is making me very on edge and I find myself suspecting everyone…’

      ‘Even two dumpy travellers and a mousy companion in that hired coach, which followed us all the way to London. But perhaps you were right; they could have been in disguise.’

      ‘Those! That was no disguise. It was Lord Myers, one-time ambassador to somewhere or other, his lady wife and Miss Sophia Langford, or Sophie as she prefers to be known.’

      ‘You are acquainted with them?’

      ‘Until today I was not. Miss Langford is a cousin of mine, though I don’t know how many times removed, but the number of removes seems not to weigh with her. She has turned up from Italy, having just buried her father, and expects me to welcome her with open arms…’

      ‘And her mother?’

      ‘Died some time ago. She was my Uncle Robert’s granddaughter.’

      ‘Then the relationship is not so distant. It is not like you to be uncharitable, James.’

      ‘Oh, I have taken her in—had no choice since Harriet has taken a liking to the girl, and I felt sorry for her. Not that she invited sympathy; she has the Dersingham pride and obstinacy, no doubt of that. Said if I didn’t take her in, she would become a governess. Couldn’t let that happen, could I?’

      ‘No, you could not. So, what is the problem? Lady Harley will do the necessary.’

      ‘I have no doubt Harriet will expect me to give her a come-out and that means escorting her to whatever occasions my sister deems necessary.’

      ‘And from what I remember when I met her at Dover, she is too plain for you. You were always known for having the most beautiful women on your arm.’

      ‘Her plainness or otherwise has nothing to do with it. Nor will she be “on my arm”, as you put it; I shall be her sponsor only. It is simply that I do not know how I will find the time. His Highness expects me to be everywhere at once. Goodness knows what he will think of doing when the Tsar and the King of Prussia pay a state visit later in the year. London will be crawling with foreign royalty and all of it expecting protection, not to mention the return of Wellington, which will be a far more popular event. It will need a whole regiment and more to keep order and since I no longer have a command, I will have to liaise with the military and give way to them on the grounds that I am a mere equerry.’

      ‘You are far more than that and everyone