Page 1 of As the Earl Likes
Chapter 1
May 1816, London
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“Shefford, this reluctance to marry has gone on long enough.”
Clive Halifax, twelfth Earl of Shefford and heir to the Duke of Henlow, closed his eyes and tipped his head back slightly. He counted to three, then lowered his head, opened his eyes, and leveled his bored gaze at his mother.
“It isn’t so much reluctance as refusal.” Sheff gave her a bland smile. “It will continue for the foreseeable future.” He moved to the tray atop a cabinet that held a helpful supply of wine and liquor. This was his father’s house, and there would never be a lack of such fortification. After splashing port into a glass, Sheff turned.
The Duchess of Henlow, standing in the center of the drawing room, nearly growled in frustration, her blue eyes flashing. Though she was a small, very thin woman, her presence could fill a room. “It’s bad enough your sister hasn’t wed yet. She’s now seen as having impossibly high standards. Her position on the Marriage Mart has fallen far below that of other young ladies of less stature and breeding. It’s unconscionable!”
“Oh, yes, it’s just a scandal that Minerva doesn’t want to wed herself to a philanderer or a drunkard. Her standards are absolutely too high.” Sheff kept from rolling his eyes, but the urge was strong.
His mother narrowed her eyes at him. “Don’t take that sarcastic tone with me. Your sister is being altogether too demanding. No man is perfect.”
“He doesn’t have to be. He just needs to be perfect for her,” Sheff said softly. He lifted his glass in a toast before taking a drink.
“Pfft. I never credited you for a romantic,” the duchess said. She stared at him a moment, her ire seeming to ease. “I didn’t think you or your sister would be like that. Not after… Well, not with what you’ve been privy to.”
She meant the awful example of matrimony she and their father had set, not that it was her fault. Sheff knew it was entirely his father’s. Just as Sheff expected to be the same kind of husband. Some men weren’t meant for an eternal love.
Or love at all.
“This is precisely why you shouldn’t expect or demand marriage from either me or Min. Our sense of it is rather warped.”
His mother’s gaze hardened once more. “You’ve a duty to the dukedom. And your sister isn’t going to be some hopeless spinster. It’s bad enough she’s aligned with one.”
The duchess referred to Min’s companion, Ellis Dangerfield, an orphan they’d welcomed into their household when she was nine years old—at his father’s insistence. Their mother had never been particularly warm toward Ellis, but that was to be expected given Ellis was just one of the duke’s many illegitimate children.
Or so Sheff believed. No one had ever said, and he’d never asked. It was just something he took as truth. Why else would the duke take in the child of a family friend who’d died? He’d never possessed one sentimental thought, as far as Sheff could tell.
That wasn’t exactly true. If it were, the duke would never have accepted Ellis. Someday, Sheff would like to know definitively that Ellis was his father’s daughter, but they never discussed the duke’s indiscretions outside of when they were happening. In those moments of crisis, Sheff was typically required to clean up his father’s mess to protect the duke’s reputation, though Sheff didn’t do it for him. He did it for the family—for his mother and especially for Min. Then, they were never mentioned again. And the duke’s past peccadilloes were certainly never resurrected.
“Mama, I’m sure you don’t mean to disparage dear Ellis,” Sheff said. “She has been a sister to Min and me.”
The duchess pursed her lips, her expression disgruntled. “I have no concern for her whatsoever except for how she reflects on and influences your actual sister.”
Sheff exhaled. “I don’t think she bears any reflection on Min, nor does she exert influence. Min has a mind of her own, which I should think you would know.” He sipped his port and glanced at the clock. They were due to leave for the ball at Northumberland House shortly. Which meant Min and Ellis would enter at any moment. They might even be eavesdropping outside the door. That made him smile. It would serve his mother right to be overheard in her judgment.
“Of course I know that,” the duchess snapped. “But the two of them together…it’s concerning. Min must wed this Season. I fear she will be relegated to spinsterhood if she does not.”
Sheff considered arguing, particularly since it would keep the conversation away from him, where it had started. But he was saved from doing so by the arrival of his sister and Ellis.
Min looked beautiful as always, her dark hair coiled into an elegant, complicated style of curls and braids adorned with pearls and a tall peacock feather. Her gown was a shimmering teal blue with purple ribbon decorating the flounces at her hem.
Ellis, by contrast, wore a simple peach-colored gown with a minimum of lace at the bodice and hem. Her blonde hair was styled and decorated without fuss, a single ivory ribbon wound through the curls.
“I am sure I heard the word ‘spinsterhood’ just before we entered,” Min said, looking at the duchess. “Were you referring to me or to Ellis?”
Sheff didn’t give their mother the chance to prevaricate. “Both of you, really. Come, we should go.”
The sooner they arrived, the sooner he could leave. He often escorted his mother, Min, and Ellis to events, stayed a short but acceptable amount of time, then took himself off to one of his clubs. He was already considering where he might go. The Phoenix Club to drink fine whisky? Perhaps the Siren’s Call to play a hand of cards or two. Ultimately, he would likely end up at the Rogue’s Den, where his favorite courtesan would greet him with a seductive smile.
However, it appeared Min was not ready to let the matter of spinsterhood drop. She narrowed her eyes at their mother, looking nearly like the duchess had when she’d scolded Sheff a bit ago. “Spinsterhood is not akin to hanging, Mother. If that is how I am meant to spend my life, so be it. I will choose being alone if that will bring me the most happiness.”
“It will not,” the duchess said firmly.
