Loving a Fearless Duchess Read online

  Avery swallowed the remainder of his drink and put the empty glass on the table. “Look, Nash. I’ll speak to him, but I’m sure you have learned in life that people interpret things in different ways. What to you might sound like a threat may seem like something benign to someone else, even a bystander not familiar with the context of a conversation. Lots can be explained by putting a snippet of a conversation in context.”

  Nash rose, followed by Avery. “Thank you for coming. I’m very happy we could have this talk. Things are much clearer to me.”

  Avery stuck out his hand for Nash to shake. While they were shaking hands, Avery said, “I’m glad we had this conversation, also. I’m especially glad things are much clearer for you.”

  Nash walked Avery out to the foyer. “See you at the ball?”

  Avery turned to Nash, “You will.”

  Their conversation was officially over.

  ***

  “So help me, Henry … if you don’t get a handle on yourself and them, you are going to ruin it all,” said Avery when Henry strolled into his office.

  Henry stopped short and looked at his father, “What?” His arms were near his hips, palms out.

  Avery sat. “Nash was here complaining that you were talking at Vauxhall for the entire world to hear about me throwing my own family out on the street. Is that true? Did you threaten them to be homeless?”

  Henry sat with an exaggerated thump. What was he supposed to say? He sputtered, “No, of course not. Why would I say such a thing, at Vauxhall no less?”

  Avery leaned forward on his desk and gave Henry a deadly stare, “If one of my peers thought for one minute that I would throw my sister and her family on the street, do you have any idea the damage to my reputation that might cause?”

  Henry squirmed in his chair and looked out the window. His voice squeaked. “Of course, I do. I would never be so stupid as to say such a thing. I’ve only been trying to break them up, as we agreed.”

  Avery crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. “How are you attempting to break them up?”

  Henry sat back, trying to appear as if he wasn’t scared to death inside. He and his father never talked about how to break them up. Just to break them up.

  “I am with him whenever they are together, getting between them. They aren’t able to enjoy one minute of time alone without me coming to them and sitting there. It’s impossible for them to get to know one another more.

  “He’ll get tired of looking at her ugly face and trying to court her. The women that try to get his attention in the ballroom will start looking very attractive to him soon.”

  The answer Henry gave seemed to calm Avery down. Henry didn’t open his mouth again, afraid that Avery would jump all over him.

  Avery put his elbows on the armrests of his chair to steeple his fingers. “I think it’s time to find a young man for Penelope so I can marry her off. I’ll make the arrangements, and she’ll have to live with them. That will put an end to my worries with Nash.

  “I think you are right, Henry. Nash will move on and find an excellent partner from the field of girls who want to be his wife.”

  ***

  Chapter 9

  Curiously, Kitty and Isabel hadn’t had any luck finding the right gentleman. When Penelope asked Edward why he thought that might be the case, he said that besides beauty, most gentlemen wanted a woman with substance.

  “That dandy that asked Kitty to dance?” he said out of the side of his mouth. “Don’t tell Mother I told you this, but he was bragging he would get a pretty girl, marry her, and keep her pregnant so he could continue with his mistress. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost.”

  “Really? That’s awful.”

  “I’m glad he didn’t ask you to dance. I would have had to take him aside. I’ll tell you the story about Isobel’s dance partner later. Mother is staring at us.”

  Edward took Penelope’s arm and saw Penelope had a smile as she walked to the group. She would never find out he made the whole thing up. It was a cardinal rule that what was said inside the club never left the club. Making up stories didn’t count.

  He admitted he didn’t know either girl well, but they both gave the impression of being flighty. Men weren’t interested in trophy wives. Wives needed to reflect their husband’s place in society, have their own society peers on a high rung of the ladder, run a house or two, throw parties. And all gentlemen were under pressure to provide an heir. It wasn’t all fun and games. It was serious business.

  He knew Penelope didn’t want to hear it, but at the risk of shocking her, Edward told her that either of those girls would be considered the perfect mistress, not the perfect wife.

  “Oh,” she said. “I think I get it.” She turned to Edward, “You didn’t shock me, but I am a little surprised. They are beautiful and fun loving. Is that it?”

  “Yes, Penelope. They are not to be taken seriously. I sincerely apologize for this subject. The majority of the gentlemen, including myself, have no interest in a mistress. That lifestyle would be more suited for someone like your cousin, Henry.”

  The conversation had two effects on Penelope. First, she was gratified that Edward would approach such a subject with her. Although it was unseemly to talk of such things with a lady, Penelope was pleased her brother felt comfortable enough with each other to have that type of conversation. Second, Penelope understood the reason some men would want a mistress. Not a good reason, mind you, but why someone was chosen as a wife, and someone was not. It was an illuminating moment, like looking out her parlour window and not seeing anything until she ran the palm of her hand across the glass. It was always there to see just under the surface.

  ***

  On an off night when the ton had no scheduled activity, and Penelope wanted to rest, Nash and Edward went to White’s for dinner. They had become close friends, finding they shared many interests. During their pleasant meal, Henry walked up to their table. Edward closed his eyes for a moment and chastised himself. He knew he should have requested a private dining room.

  Nash looked up from cutting his food. “My, my, Henry. We meet once again. To what do we owe this visit?”

  Henry looked down to see there were only two chairs at their table. “I want to talk with Finch alone, Edward.” He waved his hand in the air. “Go find something else to do.”

  Edward leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “No.”

  Henry stared down at him for what seemed like five minutes then looked at Nash. “Let’s go, Finch. We’ll find a private room and talk.”

  Nash laughed then stood. He crossed his arms. Henry’s height reached Nash’s nose, and he weighed at least 30 pounds less than Nash. Edward knew Henry never did more than walk from his bedchamber to the kitchen – that was the end of his exercise. It wouldn’t be a fair fight. Edward couldn’t wait to see it.

  Henry took a step back and said, “Fine. I’ll say what I have to say right here in the middle of the floor.” He didn’t hesitate at all but ploughed into his subject. “Back off Penelope. If you don’t, I’ll tell Father you’re causing trouble, and he’ll cut off my aunt and my cousins. They’ll be on the streets and have to fend for themselves. And the blame will be at your doorstep. You wouldn’t want that now would you, Finch?”

  Nash calmly sat and tilted his head toward Henry. In a calm, slightly annoyed voice, he said, “Go away, Henry, my dinner’s getting cold.”

  Henry’s rage showed on his red purplish face. Apparently, he didn’t get the reaction he wanted. He turned and went to the stairs, hopefully headed for the door.

  Nash shook his head. “I’m sorry to say, Edward, I don’t really like your cousin.”

  Edward burst out a short laugh. “Me neither. What do you think we should do?”

  Nash gave Edward a small, Mona Lisa smile. Something was brewing in that head of his. “I’ll tell you what I won’t do. I won’t give up Penelope for that toad.”

  Edward knew Henry was no match for Nash, and if Nas
h wanted Penelope, Nash would get Penelope. “Your interest in Penelope is that strong?”

  Edward pushed his plate from him. “My meal is cold. I’ll wait on you then I’m ordering a cognac.”

  Nash pushed his plate away. He raised an arm to flag down a server. “Two cognacs.” He looked into Edward’s eyes, “Yes, it is.”

  Edward called for cheroots. He lit his from the candle on the table. “Why do you think Henry is so dead set against you and Penelope?”

  Nash blew a circle with the smoke from his cheroot and took a sip of his cognac.

  “I’m the only one besides your family who knows the truth about Penelope, except the village commoners, of course. He has no leverage over me. Henry can’t throw me out of my house penniless. I will willingly spread the word on Henry while Cecilia, you, and Penelope keep mum on Henry’s antics.

  “He knows I can spread the word about him. He knows I’m still furious with him about my dog. He is afraid of me. I’m his biggest threat. And Avery’s biggest threat. Prepare yourself for an ultimatum about Penelope and me.

  “By the way, I don’t think he will throw the three of you out either. What’s Avery going to say to the ton? He can’t very well acknowledge he threw out his sister. And what reason would he give?

  “And, if cut off, Cecilia would be free to tell anyone who would listen all about her nephew Henry. He is making idle threats. I, on the other hand, am a Duke of good standing who they have no leverage over. Henry is stupid. He should know all that. He should know I’m still upset about my dog.”

  Edward’s face lit up. “Uncle Avery likes to have a good reputation, and he works hard for it. He drops in to say hi to the ladies having tea, and he accompanied Penelope to her first ball and danced her first dance with her. He didn’t do it for Penelope. He’s constantly polishing his image.

  “That’s why he tries to keep Henry’s profile low. You’re right. He can’t throw us out. We could talk to every member of the ton personally if we were on the street.”

  Edward’s smile was wide. “He’s giving us empty threats. Do you know what a relief it is to know the roof isn’t going to cave in?”

  “He still has the option of sending you to Somerset indefinitely,” Nash said.

  Edward thought, then said, “It doesn’t leave my mother on the streets. That is what I’m going to focus on now.”

  Nash swirled his cognac in a big bulbous glass. “So neither Henry nor Avery has anything over you. You are free to live your lives. I will think on if there are any holes in our logic, but I think you are in the clear. Have you done anything they can hold over your head? Is there something else Avery might have on you?”

  Edward answered quickly and with conviction. “No. Nothing.”

  “Did you know I have another townhouse?” Nash asked.

  “No, I didn’t. What is the necessity of having another?”

  Nash smiled. “There is none. My mother came to the marriage with one, and my father already had the one I live in.

  “She let her cousin and her cousin’s children stay there. She said she liked having it occupied. She didn’t want it empty, and she didn’t want to sell it. She didn’t want it to become run down.”

  “What happened to it?”

  “It’s empty. I don’t have the heart to sell it because it was my mother’s. Her cousin’s daughter married last year.

  “Every time I hear Henry threaten to throw you out on the street, I want to hand you the key. It must be very stressful to live like that.”

  Edward shrugged. “It is. We are used to it. We don’t know what we would do without my uncle. He saved us. He put a roof over our heads.”

  Nash gave a sharp laugh. “And yet you are constantly threatened he would take away the roof over your head.”

  Nash stopped and turned to Edward. “Do me a favour? Go live in my mother’s townhouse. You won’t be threatened; you’ll have a free place to stay, and it wouldn’t be empty. It helps us all. You would be doing me such a big favour. And besides, I’d love to see Henry’s face when you tell him you are moving so he can’t threaten you anymore.

  “I don’t want to hire someone, a stranger, just to live there. I want it to be someone’s home.

  “Please come with me and see it. You don’t need to make up your mind until then. Tomorrow, ten o’clock?”

  ***

  Nash went back to his townhouse and decided to have another cognac before retiring. His run-in with Henry at the club and another with Edward at the Musical made his mind race.

  He couldn’t forget talking with Avery either. After the night at Vauxhall when Henry spoke so loudly for anyone to hear, Nash thought Avery would be furious. Why wasn’t he?

  Maybe, Nash thought, Avery didn’t care what Henry did. He only cared if it caused his reputation to suffer. Maybe Avery was right. He could explain anything away as garbled or misinterpreted.

  Why did Henry want to split them up? He was spending all his energy on that single purpose. Did Avery know what Henry was doing? If he knew, would he agree or disagree? He’d have to talk with Edward.

  ***

  The townhouse was beautiful, but the planters in the front of the windows contained dead plants and bird droppings.

  “See?” Nash pointed to the flowers. “You can tell it’s not occupied. My mother would be so upset to see this. I’ll send someone over today to fix it.”

  Nash took out his key and opened the door to still, stuffy air. The windows hadn’t been opened recently. The furniture was covered. “It can look so much better than this.”

  Edward walked in. Nash shut the door then opened a window in the parlour. It looked out on the street. He lifted a sheet high so Edward could see what the furniture looked like underneath. Pink pastel brocade fabric with cherry wood.

  “Oh Nash, these furnishings are sophisticated.” Even the oriental carpet was pastel instead of a variation of red.

  He went to the fireplace and took the sheet off the painting over it. A beautiful girl, probably Penelope’s age, looked out with a serene expression except for twinkling blue eyes. Her white dress had colourful embroidery around the sleeves and front. She had a necklace of one large teardrop Ruby.

  Edward turned to Nash, “Your mother?”

  Nash grinned. “Yes. I love this portrait. She looks lovely, happy. This is how I remember her in my mind’s eye.”

  He put the sheet back on, taking care to cover the whole painting lest sunlight fade it.

  Nash spread his arm out and guided with his hand. “Shall we?”

  They climbed a wide staircase with large thick round balustrades and a wide handrail. An oriental carpet ran the length of the stairs, its width two feet less than the full stair width to show the wood underneath.

  Portraits covered the walls in a step pattern to the top.

  A wide hallway had three doors on each side and one door straight ahead. Nash opened the first door on the right. A large bedchamber, decorated in different tones of yellow was inside.

  Nash said, “Come on in. The rest of the doors open to similar bedchambers but were decorated in different colours. But each has a large bed, a fireplace, a large window, and a wardrobe.

  “The maid or the valet lives here.” Nash walked to a door against the far wall and opened it to find an area one-quarter of the size of the main room. He went and shut the door to the maid’s room and gestured them out again before shutting the door.

  “We’ll go down the hallway to the last door.”

  When Nash opened the door, he walked into a room larger than the one they had just been in. It was decorated in burgundy with a large burgundy oriental carpet. The curtains were drawn on the windows, leaving the room completely dark except for the light in the doorway.

  He walked to the curtains and opened one, sunlight streaming into the room. The bed in the middle of the room was the largest Edward had ever seen. There were two wardrobes and two doors against the fireplace wall, for both the maid and the valet.
/>   Except for needing a good cleaning, the house was ready to move in. It had more than enough room.

  “Now, we’ll go down to the rooms near the parlour.”

  He shut the curtains, and the room was once again dark. He shut the door and then went down past the parlour. They saw the library, study, and dining room.

  The library was circular with a cut-out in the outer wall making a sitting area surrounded by windows in the shape of a greenhouse.

  “My mother’s favourite place in the house,” Nash said, pointing to the sitting area. “She read every moment she could.”

  The round table in the center of the room held a globe of the world with gold leaf used for delineating the borders of different countries.

  There were two upholstered chairs in front of the fireplace and a large writing desk, rounded on one side to slide up against the round wall.

  Edward had never seen such a unique room, and he could picture his mother spending a great deal of time in it.

  Nash moved him along to the study. A large desk lay straight ahead from the doorway, two chairs at the ready in front of the desk. The fireplace had two upholstered chairs in a more masculine fabric than those in the library.

  Shelves held a mish-mash of paperweights, farming books laying on their sides, a quartz crystal, and a clock. Edward couldn’t quite make the rhyme or reason of it, but he didn’t care.

  The kitchen was large and neatly laid out. The room seemed so quiet to Nash. Shouldn’t there be a lot of pots and pans clanging and vegetables being chopped?

  Edward turned around to Nash and signalled he was ready to go. Nash shut the kitchen door behind them and stopped at the parlour to shut the window. Having the window open for even that short amount of time made a big difference in the air in the parlour.

  “Do you see why it needs to be lived in? I can’t let it sit without getting a family in here to do me a favour.”

  “Edward, what I’d like to do is propose a deal. In return for living here as long as you and Cecilia want, the servants, and that expense would be yours. If possible, I would like to keep the servants I have in place. If you run into a problem with one, of course, you would need to take appropriate action.