Page 55 of How to Ruin a Duke
“The book should have beena nine days’ wonder,” Thaddeus said.“A bit of tattle for those moments when Prinny refuses to oblige us with a scandal.”
“Which moments are those?”Wrexham, Duke of Elsmore asked, lounging back in the club’s well-padded dining chair.“Pass me the wine.It’s quite good.I’m sure the author is thrilled to be enjoying weeks rather than days of notoriety.”
Thaddeus set the Bordeaux near Elsmore’s plate.The wine was good, though too fruity to be an an optimal complement to theboeuf à la mode.“That brings us back to the question: Whoisthe author?”
Elsmore topped up both glasses.“You won’t let this rest.”
“If you were the butt of an ongoing scandal, one that threatened to escalate, would you let it rest?”
“Of course not, but scandal that touches me touches my bank and my darling sisters.You have neither sisters nor a bank, so why not enjoy being perceived as something other than the Duke of Dullards?”
The schoolyard nickname had followed Emory ever since he’d taken successive firsts in Latin.“I have a brother and a mother, and the last thing Jeremiah needs is a reason to dismiss me as a good example.Half the incidents in the dratted book were situations he embroiled me in.”
Elsmore held his wineglass up to the candles in the center of the table.“What does he say about possible authors?”
Thaddeus pushed the bowl before him aside.The fare was delicious, but what was Lady Edith dining on this evening?
“Jeremiah is vastly entertained by the whole situation.Maybe an impecunious friend plied him with spirits on occasion simply to hear his lordship expound on matters best kept private.From there to cobbling together a book takes only time and a well stocked desk.”
Elsmore took Thaddeus’s unfinished portion and poured it into his own bowl.“Lord Jeremiah seems to be friends with half of London.What are you doing with that bread, Emory?”
“I put butter on it.”
“And then you made a butter sandwich with another slice.I can say honestly that in all the years I’ve known you, which are getting to be more than either of us should admit, I’ve never seen you make a butter sandwich at table.”
“I don’t know as I’ve ever made a butter sandwich before.”Thaddeus had been thinking of Lady Edith having to choose between hackney fare and a proper meal.“I met with my mother’s former companion yesterday.We shared a luncheon.”
“Lady Edith?”
“The very one.She might be the author of the damned book.”Thaddeus took a bite of his butter sandwich, because he could not very well stuff it into his pocket with Elsmore looking on, nor could he have it sent to her ladyship with compliments from His Grace of Dullards.
“Does her ladyship hate you?”Elsmore asked.
“I don’t think so.”Thaddeus hoped not, in fact.
“Then she doesn’t.”
“You’re an authority on females now, Elsmore, and you such a legendary bachelor?”
“I am blessed with three sisters, a mama, plus aunties and female cousins without number.I am an authority ondisgruntledfemales.Why do you believe Lady Edith wrote the book?”
“After my conversation with her, I’m fairly certain she couldn’t have.”Bread and butter was good food.Thaddeus had stuffed his maw with it countless times and never appreciated just how good.
“Because she doesn’t hate you?You should consider courting her.”
Elsmore had been at the wine enthusiastically, but he was a good-sized fellow whom Thaddeus had never seen drunk.
“Court her simply because she doesn’t hate me?Town is full of women who don’t hate me.”
“You hope.Lady Edith could make your dear mama laugh, something I daresay you and Lord Jeremiah don’t do often enough.Not a quality to be overlooked by a bachelor duke battling undeserved scandal.”
Thaddeus took another bite of his butter sandwich.“Her ladyship carries a copy ofGlenarvonin her reticule to use as a club.”He liked knowing she’d taken that precaution, but he detested that she had to racket about London without so much as a footman to see to her safety.
“Best possible use for that tome.I suppose a lady’s companion hears all the family tales belowstairs, doesn’t she?”
“Lady Edith is also well read, and more to the point, she hasn’t another post.She would need the money such a story should be earning, and if she’s not trotting after some crotchety beldame, she’d have the time to do the writing.”
Elsmore gestured with his fork.“Maybe she came into an inheritance.Women do.”
