Christmas With The Duchess. Tamara Lejeune

a sailor,” Emma protested. “They’re meant to be a bit rough around the edges.”

      “Well, this one is rough all over,” Otto grumbled.

      Colin was appalled. “This is the creature who struck my Monty? A badly dressed sailor with calluses?”

      The door opened and Otto’s manservant padded silently into the room. “I give you Lord Camford,” he said simply. Taking out a snowy white handkerchief, he mopped the sweat from his brow.

      Nicholas stood uncertainly in the doorway, a little intimidated by the aristocrats looking back at him. His hair had been barbered and his skin looked almost like polished bronze. The dark blue uniform of the Royal Navy fit him to perfection, emphasizing his broad shoulders and long legs. His eyes looked very blue. Emma frankly was astonished by the change in him. All the potential that Lady Harriet had seen in the young man had been brought out into the open.

      Cecily leaned over to whisper in her husband’s ear. “I thought you said he was rough looking!”

      Nicholas’s eyes narrowed as he caught sight of Monty, ostentatious in his scarlet coat heavily ornamented with gold braid. “What is he doing here?”

      Emma rose from the pianoforte and hurried over to him. “Nicholas! How handsome you do look in your uniform. You quite took my breath away.”

      Nicholas’s eyes were fixed on the Scotsman. “That man. Why is he here?”

      “Please,” Emma said quickly, “let us have no more discord. Lord Ian is a close friend of my brother’s. He has apologized for his mistake.”

      “Mistake?” cried Nicholas. “He insulted you!”

      “Yes, but he didn’t have his spectacles,” said Emma. “He thought I was someone else.”

      Nicholas frowned at her. “Who?”

      “I cannot say,” said Monty, sounding quite affronted. “A gentleman does not bandy names, after all.”

      “I would like very much to avoid any hint of scandal,” Emma added. “Can we please just pretend it never happened?”

      Nicholas hesitated only a moment. “Of course,” he said. “I would not distress you for the world, ma’am.” He looked at her warmly.

      Emma smiled up at him in relief. “Thank you! Before we go down to dinner, I would like to make you known to my sister-in-law, Lady Scarlingford.”

      Nicholas bowed over Cecily’s hand. “Ma’am.”

      “I’ve heard so much about you from my husband,” she said. “None of it true, I’m happy to say. He made you sound like a cross between Dick Whittington and Robinson Crusoe!”

      “You did not see him before,” Otto said indignantly.

      “I am much obliged to Lord Scarlingford,” Nicholas said, laughing.

      “More than you know, boy,” Otto retorted, “for it was my manservant who turned you into a diamond. It was sheer genius, Croft,” he called to his valet. “Bravo!”

      “Thank you, my lord,” the servant answered. “One does what one can.”

      “Shall we go?” Emma said quickly, taking Nicholas’s arm and leading him from the room. “You will escort me into the dining room. You will be seated on my right. Lord Ian will sit at my left. And we will all have a lovely dinner.”

      “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Colin said, pushing past Emma.

      “No, I don’t think so,” said Emma.

      Ignoring her, Colin addressed Nicholas, his tone belligerent. “We have not been introduced, sir. I am Lord Colin Grey. The decorative object fastened to your arm is my sister.”

      Emma sighed. “Colin is my twin brother, Nicholas.”

      “I am her younger twin brother,” he corrected her. “I let her go first. But then I’ve always been selfless,” he added sanctimoniously. “Unlike some. I have a bone to pick with you, Lord Camford,” he said, almost in the same breath.

      “Colin, please,” Emma moaned.

      “With me, Lord Colin?” Nicholas said, surprised.

      “Well, with the Royal Navy anyway.”

      “I will answer for the navy,” Nicholas said sharply.

      “This embargo,” Colin said slyly, “this blockade, or whatever you call it, was it really necessary, sir?”

      “Yes, of course it was,” said Nicholas, shocked. “We could not allow France and her subjugated territories to freely trade their goods. All their gains would be plowed back into their war machine, used to purchase weapons to be used against ourselves and our Allies.”

      “But the Champagne, sir! The cognac! The Beaujolais!” Colin complained. “It is very hard for a man to live without the necessities.”

      Belatedly realizing the joke, Nicholas laughed. “I do apologize, Lord Colin, for the inconvenience. We were obliged to enforce the embargo against the French. The Admiralty did not give us a choice in the matter.”

      “I shall write the Admiralty a very strongly worded letter,” said Colin.

      “But now the war is over, I trust we are on the same side,” Nicholas said. “Shall we let bygones be bygones, in the spirit of the season?”

      “Yes!” said Emma. “This beastly war is over. Let us have no more fighting.”

      Like a herd of cattle in a holding pen, a restless crowd had gathered in the lounge, waiting for dinner to be served. Lord Hugh pushed his way through a gaggle of officers’ wives to where his wife stood with their four eldest daughters. “What are you doing here, madam wife?” he demanded. “You and the girls should be nursing Nicholas!”

      Certain that he would not beat her in front of the company, Lady Anne was braver than usual. “We went to his room, Husband,” she answered. “We knocked on his door, but there was no answer. He must have been resting. What could we do but go away again?”

      “You imbecile,” he muttered under his breath. “I will deal with you later.”

      Silently, Lady Anne prayed that he would be too drunk to deal with her later.

      “Yes, Husband,” she said meekly.

      On the other side of the room, Lady Susan was pouncing on Carstairs, the butler. “We are hungry, Carstairs! What is the delay?”

      “The duchess has not yet arrived, Lady Susan,” he informed her.

      “Why, you senile old fool,” she scoffed. “The duchess does not dine in company. She is still in mourning for my poor nephew—not that she ever cared three straws for him,” she added to her particular companion, Mrs. Camperdine. “But even she must be bound by the rules of propriety on this occasion. You may serve, Carstairs.”

      Carstairs merely bowed and withdrew.

      “This is intolerable,” Lady Susan complained, snapping open her fan. “If she dares to come down, she will not be granted a warm reception, I can promise you that.”

      “But after dinner, when we leave the gentlemen to their port, we can pick her bones clean,” said Mrs. Camperdine.

      Lady Susan laughed in delight.

      Twenty minutes later, the duchess was announced. All conversation stopped as all eyes turned to the doorway, where the Duchess of Warwick stood flanked by Lord Camford, in the blue of the navy, and Lord Ian, in the scarlet of the army.

      Burning with rage, Lord Hugh pushed his way toward her.

      “Would you excuse me, Nicholas?” Emma said. “Uncle Hugh seems to be trying to get my attention. Is this about that horribly complicated piece of estate business?” she inquired