Page 18 of A Fake Courtship with the Duke
The dowager eyed him suspiciously, and he knew what was coming.
“I wonder why Susan would make no mention of any such trips to town before today,” she said curtly. “Especially when she knew there were guests arriving who expected to see you.”
Richard shrugged. He had told Susan to go to her chambers when they returned home so that their mother would not be too hard on her. As her older brother, he felt very protective of her. And besides, he had ended up enjoying the hours he spent with his sister and Miss Huxley that day.
“I imagine that, with all the other hype with my marriage paring and the guests arriving, Susan might have easily forgotten,” he said. “And surely, you would not wish for Susan to leave home without a proper escort.”
At this, the duchess blanched. His mother was very prim and proper, and the thought of her only daughter being improperly escorted in town would be abhorrent to her.
It turned out that he was correct. His mother shuddered, her face relaxing into a softer, less angry expression.
“You are a good brother,” she said, sounding both proud and resigned. “However, you and your sister must inform me of such outings before I embarrass myself, as I did with Eleanor and her mother today.”
Richard gave his mother an indulgent smile and bowed.
“Of course, Mother,” he said. “I shall speak with Susan and remind her of this. Thank you for your understanding.”
The dowager sniffed, then returned to her knitting. Richard took that as his cue to escape, hurrying to his private study. He didn’t need to work that day, but he knew it would be best if he looked busy. He didn’t want his mother to get the idea that he had time to make up the missed tea encounter with Lady Eleanor and her mother that day.
He was sure that the dowager would have invited them to dinner soon, and that was painful enough for him. He couldn’t allow his mother to try to squeeze in any extra time for the forward Lady Eleanor to intrude on his life. He pulled out a fresh ledger book and began filling in details he would need for the following month. He had no data to put in them, but he knew he could drag out the task of preparing the pages for the data that would come at the beginning of the following month. Anything was better than further conversation with his mother, and certainly, entertaining Lady Eleanor for even five minutes.
Late that evening, when Richard was bored to tears with pretending to have important work to do, he poured himself a tumbler half full of brandy and sank back in his chair. He was surrounded by the portraits of many of his ancestors, past dukes, their wives and their sons, who in turn took over the dukedom.The room was filled with a feeling of nostalgia, and the flickering candlelight cast shadows across their stern, painted faces. He sipped his brandy, his mind drifting from the day in which his portrait would join that of his father on that same wall, to the afternoon’s events.
It had been an eventful day, and all the memories remained clear and vivid. He had arrived at Miss Huxley’s home with great reluctance, wondering if he hadn’t made a mistake by allowing his sister to drag him there as opposed to staying and suffering through tea with Lady Eleanor. And when she had unveiled her wild idea that he should pretend to court Miss Huxley, he had been torn between thinking that his sister was utterly brilliant and completely crazy.
And when the cat approached him, Richard had been expecting to find himself bitten or scratched. But the animal had just sat there, staring at him as though trying to gaze into his soul. He smiled softly to himself as he thought about the animal’s orange eyes. Richard himself didn’t have any pets, but he had to admit that the cat was a little bit cute.
However, once he started paying attention to his sister’s friend, he noticed how pretty and sweet she was. She was clearly smart and clever, and she had been excellent company at Gunter’s. She was also good at holding her head high, even with all the whispers and stares as their little group sat enjoying their treats. It had been clear that it bothered her, and for a moment, Richard had thought she might make one of her scenes to try to stop everyone’s gossiping. He could hardly have blamed her, as it was detestable the way people were behaving. But she handled herself well, and Richard had been impressed.
He had surprised himself by defending her as adamantly as he had when Lady Beatrice had approached, clearly looking to goad Miss Huxley into one of her stunts. Richard thought back to the ball, which had earned Miss Huxley her most recentmention in the scandal sheets. She was famous within the ton for doing things similar to what she had done to Lord Gray, as well as having clumsy accidents that were embarrassing, but hardly dangerous. He couldn’t help wondering now how many of those incidents had been induced by people goading her, just as Lady Beatrice had tried to do. It put her in a different light to Richard, and he felt a pang of sympathy.
The distant chime of a dinner bell disrupted his thoughts, and he sighed deeply, reluctantly tearing his gaze away from the portraits. He knew he had to prepare for the impending evening. His mother had surely not forgotten that he had abandoned their guests at teatime. And he was sure she would not let him leave the dinner table without giving him an earful about it. Reluctantly, Richard dragged himself from his chair, stretching the muscles in his back that had gone stiff from his hours of pretending to be busy. Then, he slowly made his way through the halls, unhappily heading for the dining room.
As he anticipated, his mother met his gaze the instant he entered the room with her own steely one. Susan was yet to arrive for dinner, so it was just his mother and him. The dowager waited for him to take his seat before she spoke.
“I trust that you will not be busy the next time I invite Eleanor and Victoria to visit,” she said, her voice clipped and intense.
Richard shrugged, holding his mother’s gaze.
“You will need to let me know in advance next time,” he said. “You know I am away a great deal on business, and I will always escort Susan into town when she wants to go. She is my younger sister, and she needs my protection.”
His mother sniffed, clearly not as moved by the sentiment as she had been earlier that day.
“Susan can take her lady’s maid,” she said. “You have other duties to fulfill. Those include helping me entertain guests. Especially when they come primarily to see you.”
Richard shrugged again, at last tearing his eyes away from his mother and looking at his bowl, which was being filled with soup.
“I will try to keep open space in my schedule,” he lied, taking a spoonful of the steaming broth. “But I must know enough in advance.”
His mother eyed him warily, clearly wanting to say something more. But just then, Susan entered, so she dropped the subject.
“Did you enjoy your trip to town, Daughter?” the dowager asked, clearly engaging in a quest for additional enlightenment than what Richard had given her.
Susan must have been prepared, because she beamed at her mother.
“It was lovely, Mother,” she said. “I asked the library to reserve a couple of books for me when next they are returned. Then, we went to have fruit ices at Gunter’s, and we took a little stroll along Bond Street.”
The dowager nodded, studying her daughter suspiciously. In the end, however, she must have decided that Susan was telling the truth. She merely sighed, helping herself to some of her own soup.
