Page 20 of The Duke Meets His Match

“That is all I ask,” Lady Walmsley said. “Thank you, Madame Veronique. Come then, Miss Jennings, we have more shopping to do!”

Madame Veronique laid her hand on Susan’s shoulder before she could reply to Lady Walmsley’s words. “Allow yourself to enjoy zees,mon chère. You have a fairy godmother. Most young ladies are not so fortunate as you.”

“Thank you; I shall try,” Susan replied, forcing a smile. And then, because it was her nature to be blunt, she had to say something more. “You do know that your French accent doesn’t fool anybody,” she whispered.

Madame Veronique laughed. “Oh, Idolike you!” she said, her French accent vanishing into thin air. “And you are absolutely correct. But do you thinkle beau mondewould buy my clothes if I spoke to them like an English rustic? It’s part of the illusion I offer them.” She winked at Susan. “We shall keep my little secret,non?” she said, the accent now back. “Even if eet eez not so much a secret.”

“Oui,” Susan said. “Et merci.”

“Off we go, then,” Lady Walmsley said. “I can hardly wait to see what we do with that bush on your head you call hair!”

Susan winced, and Madame Veronique laughed.

“Fairy godmothers are demanding creatures,mon chère,”Madame Veroniquewhispered, “but zey have our best interest at heart. Remember zat and enjoy.”

***

“You lost nearly two stone this past winter,” Evans said when George initiallyrefused to change into his court clothing so it could be fitted. “I am not going to alterthoseparticular clothes without putting them on you first. The tailoring they will require is more exacting than simply taking in a side seam here or there. You haven’t regained all the weight you lost. Do it right the first time, or don’t do it at all; that’s what I always say.”

“If you always say it, then you must do so in private, because I’ve never heardyou say it before,” George replied. “Verywell, but we must be quick about it. I have important business to attend to this afternoon.” He’d known he’d have to wear the court clothes, for he intended to appear at his immaculate best before the Prince Regent. The Prince Regent was known to be extravagant in many ways, one of which was his dress. George hadno desire to exceed Prinny in opulence, but he intended to meet fire with fire.Thiswas not a social occasion. George had attended plenty of those and had conversed frequently in such situations with Prinny. No,thiswas asummons, and although many of George’s acquaintances thought Prinny a buffoon and spendthrift andwould gossip about him behind his back, he was still His Royal Highness, thePrince Regent, and George intended to appear at court looking his most ducal and authoritative best. He donned the wretched court clothes.

“You see how much I must take it in here?” Evans said while he measured and pinned. He was currently kneeling next to George, pinning the inseam of one of the legs on his breeches. “You must eat more, Your Grace.”

“I’ve gained some of it back. You make me sound like a sack of bones, andyousound like a mother hen.”

“You are not a sack of bones precisely, Your Grace, but I don’t believe you have recovered fully from—”

“I’m fine,” George said. He stifled a cough. “Listening to you fret is making me lose my appetite, however.”

“Being called a mother hen does not affect my confidence in my masculinity, you know,” Evans said. “Just the other day, Mrs. Evans said—”

George waved his hand and cut Evans off. “Enough. I do not wish to hear what Mrs. Evans has to say about your masculinity.”

“Very well, Your Grace,” Evans replied with a twinkle in his eye.

“Hmph,” George said. He would not let his valet get the upper hand, nomatter how long the man had been in his service and no matter how fond George was of him.

George endured the fitting and returned to his office, but there was still no sign of Henshaw. This latest endeavor George had authorized had been a risky one. He hoped Henshaw’s absence wasn’t due to any complications.

He felt restless. There was work to be done this afternoon. Henshaw shouldhave informed him before dashing out so abruptly. That, on top of Prinny’ssummons, had stirred up concerns that George was unable to quell. WhileEngland’s coalition with the continental countries fighting Napoleon was proving successful, negotiations were still ongoing. The last correspondence George had received from Lord Castlereagh had been carefully worded; George had inferredfrom it that Napoleon had agreed to abdication but not on terms with whichLord C was satisfied. Shoring up the alliances with Austria and Prussia and the other countries was an ongoing and critical process.

George had opted not to attend Parliament today, telling himself that attention to his work with Henshaw was no less his duty than listening to his peers in theHouse of Lords pontificate, especially as he hadn’t slept much last night.

Waiting for Henshaw to return, though, was accomplishing nothing.

He sat at his desk and busied himself with correspondence and tried not to think about his summons to Carlton House.

***

On Friday, at precisely half past one, thirty minutes early, George removed histop hat and walked through the front doors of Carlton House after presentinghis card to the doorman. Evans had outdone himself; George’s court attire fitperfectly and conveyed the refinement George desired while facing his monarch, whatever this meeting was about.

The footman then led him to a sitting room. “I will let His Royal Highness know you are here,” he said. “Please, make yourself comfortable.”

George nearly laughed aloud at that.Comfortable, the man had said as though it were possible to feel that way when awaiting an unanticipated meeting with the Prince Regent. After the footman left, George wandered over to a window and peered outside, then walked over to the fireplace where a small fire was crackling and looked abstractedly at the painting that hung over the mantel.

He had heard no rumors of other members of the House of Lords being received in such a formal manner by the Prince Regent, not that he generallylistened to the rumor mill. Plenty of noblemen had worked in the cause ofending the war with France; it was something Parliament had spent a great dealof time discussing. Lord Castlereagh, as foreign secretary, and his contingent had traveled the breadth of the Continent, meeting with foreign leaders and had worked diligently to come to a consensus on how to defeat the French.

Prinny, however, had not actually involved himself overmuch with matters on the Continent. George considered the prince a self-indulgent wastrel who couldn’t be bothered with the administration of the country, leaving the actual governing of it to the prime minister and Parliament.

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