Maggie MacKeever (31 page)

Lord Erland stared entranced at this young lady who not only knew a great deal more than she should about a great many improper matters, but now urged him to subject his cork-brained cousin to gentle blackmail. Furthermore, he realized, it might serve very well. “Have you never wondered, sir, “inquired Jynx, who had no notion that she was fast gaining a reputation for complete urbanity, “just what
did
take Percy to Blissington House?”

“Initially,” Again, Dominic smiled. “Alas, I allowed myself to be distracted.”

Miss Lennox ignored this intriguing sidelight. “Then, think about it now! You may recall that he expressed a wish to wed?”

“Hold!” Lord Erland raised his hand. “Let us dispense with one topic before we embark upon another. You had not finished telling me what I must do about Adorée.”

Jynx was not unaware of his sarcastic undertones. “You seem to be a relatively reasonable man, and therefore you must admit that you were not making too much progress on your own. Or rather you
were
until I interfered, for which I apologize.”

“I’ll forgive you,” interrupted the earl, “if only you will come to the point!”

Jynx regarded his swarthy countenance. “I perfectly understand why Percy is reluctant to cross swords with you, sir! I can only assume that with Adorée you have not been so formidable, or you would be constantly drying her tears.” At this Lord Erland laughed, and she did flush. “I think that, were you to allow Adorée a few hours in which to recover from her expressed intention of strangling you, you might expect to be treated with, er, kindness. You think that I have acted other than I should, which is a trifle poor-spirited, since
you
were the one who—”

“—broke the faro bank! Pax, Miss Lennox! I am an ungrateful brute, and I will provoke you no more. You said earlier that you know Innis Ashley. What is your opinion of him?” She eyed him warily. “Your opinion is to be valued, Miss Lennox, unconventional as it is. My interest is sincere.”

“Innis,” Jynx replied promptly, “is unbearably tedious! There is a nothingness in him that is to the last degree fatiguing, and I do not
like to
be fatigued. I am a lazy creature, sir, and I find the Ashleys enervating, and I wish to see their affairs tidied up so that I may once more be comfortable. Now may we return to the subject of Percy?”

“Certainly.” Lord Erland was perfectly aware that his question had gone skillfully unanswered. Rarely had he been so thoroughly entertained. “Percy has expressed a desire to wed. If not Adorée—and that it is not Adorée I have known since our first meeting; frankly, my cousin’s not up to her weight!— then who? Clearly, someone whom Adorée wishes to shield from me.”

“And scant wonder.” Miss Lennox was relieved that Lord Erland did not share his cousin’s lack of wit. “Percy has painted you as a positive ogre. It is very like him to exaggerate, but I did not think of that. Truly, I did not think of a great number of things.” Visibly, she shook herself. “I digress! To continue: Percy has conceived a fondness for a young lady who he fears his family will find unacceptable, and has been meeting her in Blissington House. Adorée could not tell you this without betraying Percy and the young lady, which she refused to do.”

“Extraordinary!” remarked the earl. “She told me she had scruples, but I didn’t believe it. Do go on, Miss Lennox. Who is this young lady who makes free of Blissington House— and why should Percy not wish me to know of her?”

“I don’t think,” Jynx said cautiously, “that it’s my place to tell you her name. As for the other, Percy took the notion you could disinherit him if you didn’t approve the match. Which is all nonsense, as I have pointed out. Firstly, he can’t be disinherited; secondly, the young lady is perfectly acceptable—or at least should be! Beside, he merely needs to hold out until he’s of age, when he may do as he pleases. Or he could if not for Innis Ashley.”

Lord Erland shrugged. “I’ll deal with Innis. Do you really think that this attachment of my cousin’s will survive the test of time?”

“Sir,” said Jynx, “you can have no notion of what it already
has
endured. And she has a sincere affection that has nothing to do with his wealth. Not that she won’t appreciate it, because anyone must, but I’ve a very strong idea that she won’t be squandering it. Nor does she approve of gambling.”

“Then you have my blessing!” Lord Erland announced. “Damned if I see the need for all this subterfuge. Percy must have a secret craving for romance. It’s all Byron’s fault, with his prattling on about Sin’s long labyrinth and Roman orgies and bosoms surcharged with past guilts. Still, no harm’s been done, and I assure you that you are perfectly acceptable to Percy’s family.”

“I am?” Jynx uttered faintly.

“Of course.” Lord Erland rose, crossed the room, and drew her to her feet. “I can’t imagine how Percy thought you wouldn’t be. It’s my fault, you’ll tell me, and perhaps you’re correct. In the future I’ll be much easier on the boy.”

Jynx hadn’t the least idea of how to amend the ghastly misunderstanding that had so suddenly sprung up. Even if she had, Lord Erland gave her scant time.

“You’ll know just how to handle him,” said Dominic, in tones that were distinctly relieved. “I don’t know why an intelligent young woman should wish to ally herself with my nodcock cousin, but I am very glad of it. Welcome to the family, Miss Lennox!” In celebration of the event, he kissed her. It was as Jynx was suffering this chaste salute on her forehead, and wondering how she managed to land herself so consistently in the suds, that Shannon walked into the room.

Chapter Twenty-five

Shannon, too, had enjoyed a brief interval of peace, during which he had with an untroubled mind gone about his usual gentlemanly pursuits. From Lennox Square he had gone to Watier’s, where Mr. Brummell awaited, and had been privy to the Beau’s complaints that the constant scorching of his valet Robinson’s curling tongs had thinned out his hair. From there they emerged to stroll, arm in arm, to White’s, where Mr. Brummell recalled with gentle irony the days when he was an officer in the prince’s own regiment, the 10th Hussars, a commission he had resigned when the Hussars were ordered to Manchester to suppress a riot in the cotton mills because he couldn’t tolerate the idea of being exiled to a provincial town. After White’s came Brook’s, and the Beau reminisced about the time when he had fallen off his horse and broken his nose. In this manner the evening grew late, and the gentlemen at last parted, mutually pleased. Mr. Brummell was an amiable and whimsical soul unless annoyed by antisocial behavior. This evening the world had been given to understand that the Beau chose to overlook the disgraceful scene enacted by Lord Roxbury and his fiancée. There was not the slightest doubt that the Beau’s world would follow suit.

The viscount rose the following day in an excellent frame of mind. He tracked down his archbishop without difficulty, procured his special license, and returned home prior to attending Mr. Brummell’s daily
levée
in his dressing room. Lord Roxbury was not this day to hear the Beau’s witty animadversions on matters sartorial, or to gaze with awed reverence upon the pig’s bristle brush with which the Beau scrubbed himself daily for two hours. As Shannon was on the point of setting out for Clarges Street, Eulalia Wimple arrived on his doorstep, big with news. When she had delivered herself of that information. Lord Roxbury set out post-haste for Lennox Square. Since he was a familiar caller there, and one who seldom bothered to have himself announced, and since Miss Lennox was always at home to the viscount, the butler unhesitantly directed him to the study.

Shannon stepped across the threshold and wished that he had adhered more closely to protocol this day. Miss Lennox flushed and stammered an introduction. Lord Erland smiled, bowed, and took a polite leave. Shannon folded his arms, and waited. Jynx practically fell into a chair.

“I know!” she said dolefully. “First
tête-à-têtes
with Innis Ashley, and now Lord Erland. You must think me the most abandoned creature alive. I suppose you wish to break off our betrothal again?”

“I didn’t break if off the first time; you did.” Shannon’s glance was forbidding. “Your aunt has been to see me. I thought she was all about in her head, for she said not only that you meant to elope with Percy, but that the two of you had an assignation at Astley’s! And so I told her. But if Erland welcomes you into his family, there must be some truth in it. Jynx, what in blazes are you up to?”

Miss Lennox propped her weary brow against her palm. “I do not expect you to believe this, but I am wholly innocent! Eulalia took that stupid notion because I asked Papa if Percy’s inheritance would be forfeit if he eloped; and Lord Erland misunderstood when I explained that Percy didn’t go to Blissington House to see Adorée. Erland saw me there this morning, because Percy took me to Blissington House instead of Astley’s. Shannon, do try and understand! I knew you would not like it, but Papa wished me to go, and the way things stand I could not refuse.”

“Sir Malcolm wished you to go?” Lord Roxbury had not gleaned a great deal of enlightenment from Jynx’s speech. “Why, poppet?”

By this familiar endearment, Miss Lennox was almost unmanned. “The fat is truly in the fire now!” she uttered somberly. “Innis is due to be arrested, Cristin is due to be carried off by Eleazar Hyde, and Adorée is due to fall victim of both a brain fever and her creditors.” Shannon appeared confused. “Lord Erland broke the faro bank for five thousand pounds, and I did not know where to send you word, so I went with Percy.”

Such was the impact of all this intelligence that Lord Roxbury felt an urge to sit down. In a room filled with countless comfortable receptacles, it was only natural that he should choose to sit on the arm of Jynx’s chair. “I take it,” he said cautiously, “that you don’t mean to marry Percy?”

“Percy!” wailed Jynx. “I vow I’d murder him within a sennight. I would wish Lady Bliss and her entire company to perdition, were not this coil partially of my making—but as for marriage, I have never wished to marry anyone but you. And I should not blame you for crying off, but this is
not
the way I mean to go on!”

Of course Lord Roxbury was stricken by these words with both relief and sympathy; and of course he expressed these emotions as would any proper young gentleman. It was some time before Miss Lennox spoke again, and by then Shannon had possession of the chair, and she was seated on his lap. “I did not know,” said Jynx, “that cuddling could be so comfortable!”

Lord Roxbury squelched a very strong urge to proceed with this most pleasant of pursuits, and applied his mind to practical matters instead. “I have the special license,” he murmured. “Once the knot is tied, you may, er, ‘cuddle’ to your heart’s content.”

“But I can’t!” Jynx drew away from him. “Not yet.”

“Jynx!” The viscount’s countenance was wrathful. “You just said you didn’t wish to marry Percy.”

“I promise you I do not! But I must see Adorée free of this coil because it is my fault that she and Lord Erland are at odds.” Jynx studied Shannon’s face. “It is not impossible, you know! Lord Erland would not admit it but she kept his cloak, which is a very good indication that she doesn’t truly want to strangle him.”

Lord Roxbury placed his hands on his fiancée’s shoulders and shook her, none too gently. “Start at the beginning, if you will!”

“You aren’t,” Miss Lennox said gloomily, “going to like it.”

“I shall like it a great deal less,” bellowed the viscount, “if you do not explain!”

Jynx was an intelligent and obedient girl, and she perfectly appreciated the logic of Lord Roxbury’s remarks. Therefore, she settled herself against his shoulder, and concentrated her attention on the presentation of a concise and straightforward account. She told him of her conversation with her father and of Percy’s arrival in the house; she recounted her interview with Adorée Blissington and Lord Erland’s remarks.

“That’s the whole of it,” she sighed. “I’ve no doubt that Innis is involved in the thefts; it’s just the sort of crack-brained thing that he would do. But if only I can persuade Lord Erland to take Adorée away, at least
she
may be saved embarrassment.”

Lord Roxbury, owing to the fact that his arms and lap were filled with a superb example of fair and fragrant femininity, had not concentrated his attention as fully as had Jynx. Still, he felt compelled to protest. “If Adorée is involved—and you might recall that she’s every bit as crack-brained as her brother—Erland won’t be able to take her far enough. Jynx, this is the very devil of a mess!”

“Isn’t it?” Miss Lennox sat up, looking remarkably cheerful. “I was sure you wouldn’t mind, once you understood. Oh, and Adorée said Innis was going to fix everything up right and tight, and God knows what
that
means! More trouble, I’ve little doubt.”

Neither did Shannon. “Whoever would have thought,” he mused, as he regarded Jynx’s roguish face, “that this wretched imbroglio would result just because I said I’d marry you.”

“Shannon!” She was stricken. “I wasn’t thinking of it that way, but it’s true that I’m responsible for a great deal of this. If I had never met Cristin, if I had not gone to Blissington House and taken Percy along—I must in all conscience see it cleared up, but you need not be involved. It is not fair for me to expect it of you.”

Lord Roxbury was equally stricken by this selfless attitude. He pointed out diffidently that he was not entirely uninvolved, since Adorée Blissington had been his—He paused.

“Your particular friend,” concluded Miss Lennox. “That won’t fadge, Shannon; if all of Adorée’s particular friends were to be held responsible, half of London would be involved in this contretemps. And don’t start laughing again!”

The viscount tried very hard, but did not entirely succeed. “Oh, poppet!” he gasped. “If I can somehow clear up this wretched mess, then will you
immediately
marry me?”

“Certainly.” Jynx eyed him with considerable doubt. “If you’re positive that you do not wish a more restful wife.”

Lord Roxbury
was
positive, and so he proceeded to demonstrate. Miss Lennox was more than willing to be convinced. “Hah!” said Sir Malcolm as he walked into the room. The guilty pair sprang apart and sought to extricate themselves from the chair. “Don’t fret! You might as well be cozy while you can, for I’ve an errand for the both of you.”