Page 5 of Drawn to the Duke
Beth lowered her eyes. “Of course, Chauncy. I had no wish to overstep the bounds of propriety. It’s just?—”
Chauncy didn’t want to encourage her so said nothing, until his cousin whispered, “It’s just that Lady Saunders asked me to give this to you.”
Reluctantly, Chauncy took the wax-sealed paper Beth held out.
Another request to pay Catherine’s gambling debts? Chauncy had studiously avoided being alone with Catherine since she and Saunders had arrived the previous day.
“So, perhaps therearemerits to marriage with Miss Blenkinthorpe,” Beth said, more brightly this time, but with an incisive look at Chauncy. “Though I do wish you’d marry someone on the basis of love. However, since your mind is clearly made up, no doubt you’d rather talk of matters other than marriage.”
Chauncy offered his cousin a bland smile.
As he’d been considering whether to divulge to Saunders the extent of his wife’s gambling addiction, which Chauncy had financed for more than a year, talk of marriagewasa welcome diversion.
It was certainly a diversion from his preoccupation these past weeks to thwart a feared upcoming attempt on the Prince Regent’s life.
Requesting a supposed request from Miss Harriet Blenkinthorpe for a likeness had been an inspiration but he knew he’d have to be careful not to let slip it was not the real reason he wished Sir Edward to draw his visage.
Chauncy’s colleague, Sir Simeon, had despaired of any chance of positively identifying three primary suspects he’d learned had been invited to Lady Rushworth’s August Ball.
A ball which the Prince Regent was also attending several weeks hence and at which it was feared he’d be in mortal jeopardy.
If Mr. Boothe proved quick and accurate in drawing Chauncy’s likeness, the young artist would also be included on the guest list.
If he could draw Chauncy to his satisfaction during this house party, then he could draw the three suspects. Quickly and discreetly. That was all that was required.
Chauncy stirred himself for Beth had spoken once more and he’d only just caught the last of her words, causing him to say with great affection, if not complete truth, “Why, Beth, of course someone will want your portrait painted. I think you’re the most beautiful woman in all of East Anglia.”
“Well, I’ve caught you out in a lie, my dear Chauncy, since that is what you used to tell Gwyneth.”
“I did?” Chauncy paused to reflect on Beth’s late older sister. Gwyneth had not been a beauty, but her sweet eccentricity had endeared her to him. While she’d scandalized her family for speaking without thought, Chauncy had admired his unconventional cousin’s candor. “Poor Gwyneth. If the gentlemen had only been able to see past her birthmark?—”
“Her dowry compensated for that, and you know it, Chauncy!” Beth retorted. “It was the fact she spoke her mind. That’s what the gentlemen couldn’t see past. Anyway, it’s too late now.” She sighed. “But it’s not too late for you to reconsider this marriage to Miss Blenkinthorpe. No, Chauncy, Miss Blenkinthorpe is too bland for you.” She regarded her cousin thoughtfully. “You need to find a wife who will keep you on your toes. Someone who is sufficiently beautiful to please your discerning eye, but who is quick-witted and who won’t allow themselves to be dictated to.”
“A recalcitrant wife? Oh, I don’t think so, Beth.”
His cousin grinned. “Semantics, Chauncy! Recalcitrant? Disobedient? It doesn’t matter what she is or isn’t. Just as long as she isn’t dull. For I can assure you that’s my greatest fear regarding you taking Miss Blenkinthorpe as your wife. That she will obediently keep her mouth shut and, quite frankly, bore you to death.”
CHAPTER 5
Slowly Selina circumnavigated the light-filled conservatory as if she were admiring the exotic fruits and flowers.
“A little to the right, Edward,” she murmured. “Yes, two inches more. And angle the easel. That’s right. When I am at your side, pretending interest, His Grace mustn’t see my hands. Then, if anyone else enters, I can leave and observe from outside.” She pointed to a tree behind which she could conceal herself. At the very worst, she could stand and peer through the fork between two branches while she sketched.
Not that that was likely to happen, but one had to be prepared. Selina had always pretended to mix Edward’s paints at his side—and Samuel’s when he’d been alive and parading, also, as an artist—while quickly drawing, but the only reason the men in Selina’s life had prospered was because she factored in all contingencies.
“And is there anything else I can do that would satisfy madam?”
“No need for the sarcasm. I was not the one who got themselves into hot water by promising something I could notdeliver. You just assumed I’d come to your rescue when you accepted this commission.”
Edward glared. “You want commissions as much as I do. And my reputation as a painter does not depend on you, Selina.”
“As a landscape painter, Edward; no, it does not. But as a portraitist, you cannot capture a likeness as I can, and that is why I am here. No need to snap. Oh, Your Grace!”
Caught by surprise, Selina dipped a curtsey, wishing she’d left a few minutes earlier, as planned. She hoped the duke had heard nothing of their exchange.
Besides which, the less the duke observed her, the better. With Edward’s real wife not having been seen in public in five years, there was bound to be speculation over what Lady Boothe was like.
How mad she really was.
