Page 53 of The Viscount in her Bedroom
Simon smiled benignly. “No, but I have ways of knowing what’s going on.”
Lord Keane grinned, while the other men glanced at each other uneasily.
Louisa fumed in silence. How dare the man make insinuations in Simon’s own house! And right to his face, as if he couldn’t do anything about it.
Mr. Reyburn awkwardly distracted the men with the topic of a coming horse race. Georgie gave Louisa a worried glance. As a maid entered the room, pushing a cart loaded with tea and sandwiches, Louisa surreptitiously motioned Georgie toward it. The two women met, turned their back to the men, and after the maid had been dismissed, began randomly moving the sandwiches from plate to plate.
Bending her head to Georgie, Louisa whispered, “I cannot stand how Lord Keane is treating your brother, as if his blindness makes him unattractive to women.”
“But what can we do?” Georgie whispered back.
“I’m the only available woman here, but if I fawn all over Lord Wade, it will seem like I’m a servant currying favor.”
“What if you simply talk to him,” Georgie said with excitement, “showing interest in a favorite subject of his? You will seem interested in his mind, which of course is as sound as ever.”
“I’m not sure Lord Keane would care about that, but it’s all we have. So what is a favorite subject of his?”
They looked at each other in a panic, and Louisa’s mind went blank.
“Rowing?” Georgie squeaked.
“That’s a sport!”
“But…he’s designing modifications on his boat.”
“Really?” Louisa said, so intrigued she almost forgot to whisper. “What are they?”
“I don’t really know,” Georgie said. “Something about an oarlock and how the oar fits into it.”
“Ladies,” called Simon, “do you need help with the tea?”
Louisa gave Georgie a determined smile. “Wish me luck.”
They turned and began to ask the gentlemen how they preferred their tea. When all had been served, Louisa sat back down across from Simon.
Taking a deep breath, she said into the silence, “Lord Wade, of course your friends know about your rowing, but I understand from your sister that you’re working on a new design for an oarlock.”
He lifted his head as if looking at her. She could read nothing in his eyes, of course, but she knew him well enough to sense his skepticism. Then his mouth turned up in a half smile, as if he suddenly knew what she was doing.
“Rowing?” Lord Keane said.
Mr. Tilden cleared his throat and blushed. “You row, Lord Wade?”
“Oh, he does,” Louisa said. “I am amazed by the speed at which he flies across the lake.” Trying to look serious and contemplative, she added, “This oarlock design sounds—”
“You should think of competing,” Mr. Tilden said. “At my club, we—”
“Thank you for the suggestion, Tilden,” Simon said, “but I’m afraid I would lose terribly, because the weight of my navigator would slow me down.”
“And without a navigator, you’d end up in the reeds,” Lord Keane said.
Louisa and Georgie exchanged wide-eyed looks. This wasn’t the direction they’d meant the conversation to take.
ChapterTwelve
Simon listened to Georgie try to steer the conversation to someone’s upcoming ball. He was proud of how she had made light of her own mistakes, how she seemed to be holding her own in a room full of men.
Until she’d begun to conspire with Louisa to defend him against Keane’s barbs. He knew damn well what they were doing. He would make sure they understood how unnecessary it was.
