Page 29 of Courting Scandal With The Duke
‘I will be right there,’ she called out.
‘Your wrap, my lady,’ Marion said.
‘Thank you.’
When she heard her aunt’s voice in the street below, she tripped lightly down the stairs and into the street. Aunt Lenore was already ensconced in the carriage.
‘Sorry I am late, Aunt. A wardrobe malfunction slowed me down.’
‘Nothing serious, I hope?’ Her aunt looked her up and down.
‘No. Not serious. Marion handled it.’
As usual, her aunt’s carriage crawled to their destination. Fortunately they did not have far to travel, and when they arrived, Barbara made sure her aunt was always a few steps ahead so she could keep her feet out sight.
Inside the Earl of Bourne’s grand townhouse, a line of the nobility snaked its way up the staircase to the ballroom on the first floor.
From above came the muffled voice of the butler shouting names as guests entered the ballroom.
Every few moments, the line shuffled up a step or two.
‘Oh, dear,’ her aunt said. ‘Perhaps we should have come earlier.’
‘Perhaps we should not have come at all,’ Barbara said.
A gentleman ahead of them turned at the sound of their voices. ‘Mein Gott!Barbara, is it you?’
Barbara stared at the blond man in astonishment. ‘Charles. What are you doing here?’
Her dead husband’s brother grinned. ‘Waiting to be admitted to some infernal ball,’ he said. ‘I arrived yesterday in London. I planned to send around my card tomorrow to ask if I could call on you. But here you are.’
He moved around the person standing behind him and to join them.
‘Aunt Lenore, let me introduce Charles, the Count of Lipsweiger and Upsal. My departed husband’s heir.’
An attractive smile lit his face. ‘Such a pleasure to meet you.’ He took Aunt Lenore’s hand and bowed in the Continental fashion.
Aunt Lenore blushed and fluttered her handkerchief.
‘Surely you didn’t travel all the way to London to attend this squeeze?’ Barbara said.
He winced. ‘No, my dear. I am here on business. Financial matters. For my family. But Iam delighted to see you here and looking beautiful as always. I have missed you.’
Financial matters were always a problem in his family. No wonder he sounded tense. ‘As I have missed you.’
Charles had been in Vienna and had often accompanied her to various events when Helmut had been too busy. Which was nearly all the time. It was only after her husband’s death that she discovered he had not been occupied with important matters of state but rather busy with his mistress.
While she could not blame Charles for her husband’s unfaithfulness, she had wished he had informed her what was going on instead of trying to shield her from embarrassment, as he’d told her afterwards. He had been most apologetic when she’d confronted him about keeping her husband’s secrets.
But then he and her husband were family and Barbara was an outsider. She shouldn’t really expect anything else.
They reached the top of the stairs, handed over their cards and the butler introduced them. They walked into the ballroom together.
‘I hope we will see something of you while you are in London,’ she said.
‘Try keeping me away.’
She laughed. He had always been full of flirtatious nonsense, but it had meant nothing. They had never been more than friends.
