Page 77 of A Royal Kiss & Tell
The other thing that had happened in those weeks after Eliza’s wedding was Leopold. Oh, but she was a blessed fool for involving herself with him. Had it been Hollis or Eliza in her shoes, she would have strongly cautioned them against getting caught up with someone like him. Well, shehadcautioned Eliza, but Eliza had stubbornly followed her heart, and look where that had gotten her.
But Caroline was not Eliza, and Leopold was not his brother, and Caroline knew she was walking on the very edge of a cliff. But she’d meant what she’d said—life was so boring if one didn’t gamble a bit.
On this bright, sun-filled day, she had to swallow down a giggle every time she thought of him. She couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t help anything where he was concerned.
When she reached the judge’s modest home, she fairly leaped from the carriage and jogged up the steps to the door, rapping a staccato burst of eagerness that sent Jack and John, the two terrible terriers, into paroxysms of alert. Their barking sounded like an entire kennel on the other side of the door.
Poppy opened the door. Poppy had been a housemaid since Caroline was a girl and was really more sister than servant. Her face lit with delight, and she threw her arms around Caroline, smashing Jack and John between them as she hugged her tightly. “I thought you’d all but forgotten us! Oh, but we’ve missed you, Lady Caroline. The judge asked about you just yesterday. ‘Has Caro forgotten us,’ he said.”
“How could I ever forget any of you?” Caroline exclaimed as she squatted down to greet the dogs properly with a good scratch behind the ears. “I’ve been terribly busy. Somanyengagements.” She sighed loudly, as the work of attending soirees and supper parties was as taxing as pulling a plow. “I’ll confess, Poppy,” she said as she gained her feet, “I seem to be in vogue this summer. It’s not unlike my debut. You remember that, don’t you? It seemed as if suitors and callers were falling out of the ceiling rafters.”
“I don’t remember that exactly, no,” Poppy said thoughtfully. “But of course you’re in vogue. Look at you!” She held Caroline’s arms wide to see her gown. “Did you make this dress? It’s stunning.”
“I did indeed. I mean to make you one, too, Poppy. I think a dark red would suit you. But you’ll have to wait until the end of the summer season—the invitations come one after the other,” she said breathlessly as she followed Poppy down the hall.
“It must be so difficult to juggle so many invitations,” Poppy said with genuine sympathy. She’d always been an ardent supporter.
“Thank you, Poppy. No one but you really cares how taxing it all is for me.”
She walked into the drawing room and paused to look around. The room, as familiar to her as her own home, was just as Eliza had left it. There were two well-worn armchairs in the window, with stacks of books and gazettes on a table between them. A settee with lumpy seating from years of use was in the middle of the room. Clocks in various stages of repair sat on the mantel—Eliza had a peculiar hobby of repairing them. Near the door was a small desk stacked with papers and ledgers. The judge’s chair was before the hearth, and next to it, a large basket of yarn on the floor, into which the black cat, Pris, had wedged himself today. The judge liked to knit. It was the thing he could do by feel.
Hollis was here, standing on a footstool at the bookshelves that lined one wall, and appeared to be attempting to tidy them up. Caroline didn’t think it was possible to tidy a room as cluttered as this, but she respected Hollis’s willingness to try.
“Is that Caroline?” the judge asked, putting down his knitting, training his sightless eyes to the middle of the room.
“Yes, Your Honor! It is me, in all my glory, which, today, I don’t mind saying, is quite incomparable,” Caroline said as she sailed across the room and bent to kiss his cheek. “Have you missed me?”
“Almost as much as I miss dear Eliza,” he said, and smiled as he patted her cheek with his hand. “Hollis tells me you have been entertaining a prince of your own.”
“Entertaining him! Certainly not.Avoidinghim.” Caroline laughed as she reached for Hollis’s hand to squeeze it.
“Ha!” Hollis said. “Every time I see you you’ve had some encounter with him that you can hardly keep to yourself.”
“I can’t deny it,” Caroline admitted, and ungracefully fell onto her back on the settee, nestling her head against a faded pillow on one end, and stacking her feet on the arm of the settee at the opposite end, letting them fall naturally to the side. “This summer has been astormof activity, I tell you. I’m exhausted from it all.”
Hollis hopped down from the stool and settled on the floor beside Caroline. “So? What news have you brought us today?”
“Well, I’ve gone and made a terrible mess of things for Beck.”
Hollis laughed with delight. “How grand! I am forever amused when things have been made a terrible mess for Beck.”
“Hollis, don’t be unkind,” the judge said. He’d resumed his knitting, and the cat was trying to catch the line of yarn that went up to his needles. “Beckett Hawke has been very good to you.”
Hollis glanced heavenward. “Yes, of course he has, but that does not change the fundamental fact that he is Beck.”
“Beck wasn’t even there when I made the mess. He’s gone to Four Corners to race the horse he brought from Alucia. Did I tell you? I heard him say he’d wagered one hundred pounds. Can you imagine?”
“I cannot,” the judge said.
“Poppy!” Hollis called out. “Will you bring us some tea, darling?”
They all heard Poppy’s indiscernible reply from some other part of the house.
“All right, tell us,” Hollis urged her.
Caroline turned onto her side and propped her head onto her palm. “Since we returned from Alucia, Beck is determined to see me married. I told him that no one would court me, not really, as I’ve turned down every eligible gentleman in London. Haven’t I, Hollis?”
“I wouldn’t sayallof them.”
