Page 60 of How to Ruin a Duke
“Sir Prendergast was in love with me,” Antigone whispered.“I know he was, and maybe he still is.He had to marry that woman, and I understand that a gentleman needs means.But he would never have run off with some female just to get his hands on her settlements.You don’t know anything about love because you’re too busy being a… a libertine.”
Said as if libertines were so vile as to exceed even the criminals and sinners filling Dante’sInferno.
“Antigone, dearest, please believe me when I tell you that it was your name Sir Prendergast bandied about so carelessly.Had anybody other than Emory been present, you would be enjoying a long respite at the family seat under the watchful eye of three aunts, two companions, and a brace of mastiffs.Emory handled the matter quietly for your sake.”
Jeremiah braced himself for an explosion, but Antigone instead went still.“My name?Sir Prendergast bandiedmy nameabout in that manner?”
“If you believe nothing else I ever say, please believe I’m being honest with you now.You had a narrow escape.”
She was quiet until the slow movement concluded.When Uncle embarked on a lively trio, Antigone took up her hoop again.
“Maybe Sir Prendergast wrote that awful book.He would hate Emory enough to do such a thing.”She stabbed the fabric with her needle and pulled the thread taut.“Who else would take an incident like that and turn it into a reproach against our duke?”
“Weren’t you just saying Emory was overdue for a set-down?”
“A set-down is one thing, but whoever wrote that book went beyond a set-down.I hope His Grace does find the author and draws his cork too.”She paused in her stitching.“There’s something else you should know.”
“No more secrets, please.I’ve heard my quota for the year in the past quarter hour.”And shared a secret or two as well.
“Well, you can hear one more, because Emory has seen fit to avoid this gathering.I think Her Grace is working on a book.She’s been making lists, consulting her spies, and collecting stories.When we drove out the other day in Hyde Park, she was positively glowing over some tidbit she’d gleaned from Lady Westerfield.The scandals that woman has been privy too would probably fill ten books.”
Jeremiah experienced a sensation that he associated with the early phases of inebriation when the quality of drink was particularly poor.A sense of events spinning beyond his control while he had neither the means nor the will to prevent a looming disaster.
“You thinkthe duchessis working on a book?”
“Who knows.Perhaps she’s penning the much-vaunted sequel toHow to Ruin a Duke.Perhaps this version will include some of your exploits as well, Cousin.Won’t that be delightful?”
Lady Edith Charbonneauin the throes of ecstasy, even ecstasy occasioned by one of Cook’s pear tarts, distracted Thaddeus from the purpose of his call.
Steady on, old boy.“What would you give me in exchange for a liberal supply of pear tarts?”he asked, taking a bite of his own sweet.
“You are teasing me,” she replied.“Besides, woman does not live on pear tarts alone.”
“Would you like your previous position back?”
She took up the flask and traced the crest embossed on it.“No, thank you.Two years of being Her Grace’s companion taxed my patience to its limits.Your mother enjoys ordering other people around, and I abhor being told what to do.”
“As do I.If you do not want your former post back, then what could I offer you in exchange for your assistance finding the author ofHow to Ruin a Duke?”
“You needn’t offer me anything.”She set down the flask without drinking and took up her tart again.“I’m happy to give you what aid I can out of simple decency, though I am at a loss for what insight you expect me to bring to the task.Nonetheless, I re-read portions of the book last night, and some of the incidents recounted cast you in a very unflattering light.My temper is roused on your behalf, Your Grace.”
She sniffed her pear tart, then took a bite from the crust.
Thaddeus rose, because if he remained on the loveseat, he’d be tempted to sniffher.Surely his dignity had gone begging along with his reputation.
“I cannot impose on your time without offering you compensation of some sort.I could sponsor subscriptions to your book of advice, for example, or find you another post as a companion with somebody more agreeable than my mother.”Nearly anybody would be more agreeable than Mama in a fretful mood.
“I haven’t written my advice book yet.I completed an outline and drafted several chapters, but whoever agrees to publish it will doubtless have suggestions regarding the final form of the book.”
The desire to craft an exchange of consideration wasn’t merely fair dealing from a business perspective.Thaddeus needed to know that Lady Edith had some means, that she was safe from desperate measures and desperate men.
“What about your brother, my lady?Shall I buy him a commission?Lord Jeremiah is certainly eager to embrace an officer’s life.”Thaddeus understood and respected his brother’s desire to make his own way, but Mama did not.Then too, Jeremiah was the spare, and a spare’s lot was to wait for an heir of the body to appear.
Lady Edith rose.“No officer’s commission, please.Foster is all the family I have left, though we aren’t even related.He has never expressed any wish to join the military, and I would rather he not perish in the Canadian wilderness.”
“My lady—Edith—I cannot avail myself of your time without—”
She put her hand over his mouth.“Have you never had a friend before, Emory?Friends help each other.I will help you if I can.Come sit with me.”She took him by the hand and led him back to the loveseat.
