Major Lord David (13 page)

Again Hayden sighed. “Parliament will hope-as it should
not-that Bonaparte will be content once again to head France.
But there are objections to the man per se. We have had considerable opportunity to know Monsieur Bonaparte. Do you hold
out any hope that he might be contained?”

“None at all.”

“Nor do I. So there must be a vote once again for war. But
once resolved that conflict is inevitable-a resolution, by the
way, that could take some weeks-the Commons will dither
when it should not. And there is that far-from-minor matterthat we must be ready to fight a war before we declare it. But I
leave military matters to you and Wellington.”

“I cannot imagine a decision before the Easter recess,”
David said, moving to take Demarest’s vacated seat. “At least
two weeks from now.”

“At least,” Hayden agreed with a smile. “Unless you hear
from Wellington.”

“He will not press me to join his staff again. He will find
enthusiasm enough in younger officers. That has always carried weight with him. He might complain about inexperience,
but he objects to long faces”

“And yours is a long face?”

“Increasingly. I am feeling old.”

“But you still think you must go?”

“I must. It is an obligation. And a desire. If I am not there
and feel that if I had been-”

“Ah! David Trent’s exceptionality!”

“‘Tis hardly `exceptionality,’ Myles, when any confrontation is likely to turn on sheer numbers. We shall have difficulties enough in preparation without scrabbling for heads.”

“The allies will come forward”

“Yes. And what a motley assortment we shall be!” His rest less fingers turned Demarest’s cards for review before he
carefully repositioned the hand.

“How inscrutable you are,” Hayden muttered, observing
him. “And what of your other obligation?”

“I have no other obligation. Miss Caswell has released me”

“Because of this news?”

David shook his head. “No. She threw me over last night.
Before any of us knew.”

“Before…?” Hayden repeated softly, watching his brother’s
face. “Well, at least you might console yourself that she objects to you on your merits, or lack of them, and not because
of influences beyond your control.”

“You might find consolation in such thinking, Hayden,” he
objected quickly. “Though I doubt you have ever been refused.”

“Not that I recall,” Hayden admitted with a small smile.
“Though I’ve never offered, either.”

“‘Tis not a pleasant feeling,” David admitted with some
warmth. “The more so when she gave every
indication.. Catching Hayden’s expression, he insisted instead, “She is not
indifferent to me. She tells me she has decided against me, but
my vanity tells me otherwise. I cannot believe her so fickle,
that in less than a fortnight in town she has turned her attentions to others” He firmed his lips, at once aware of sounding
too strident. The previous night’s restless sleep still haunted
him; as a seasoned campaigner, he habitually slept like a top.
And the morning’s requirements had fed his grievances.

Myles observed him with greater curiosity than amusement. “‘Tis simply the shock,” he offered at last. “You will
come ‘round.”

“Oh, certainly. I’ve every faith in it! But it’s a puzzle
nonetheless-that now the matter with Miss Caswell is
settled, I’ve an unexpected reluctance to have it so. I’d not realized, that when I contemplated selling up-and spending
time fishing and riding and eating as much buttered toast as I might possibly want-that she was so essential a part of it.
She has been one with my thoughts of home, Myles. Ever
since the New Year.”

“Well…” Hayden said. “News like today’s certainly does
concentrate the mind. But you had some years of fond attachment to make up in order to match her. As I recall, you
claimed Miss Caswell would have to choose you. You gave
her too much rein.”

“The more fool I, though it was the honorable course. I
should have taken your advice and deprived her of choice.
D’you know,” he diverted heatedly, “she believes me in thrall
to Miss Athington?”

“Does she?” Hayden’s eyebrows rose. “Astonishing. Where
do women get these notions? But speakin’ of notions-no
doubt you’ve heard of Miss Caswell’s apparent fondness for
young Grenby. Some also suggest her interest grows in her
brother’s friend, Ronald Dumont”

At that David swore, low but volubly, in the French that always satisfied his more primitive feelings. That Billie should
care in the slightest for the decorative, too smoothly mannered Grenby was outside of enough. And Dumont! What little
David had seen of Dumont confirmed the man’s venality. He
was sly, calculating, and reliable as a swamp.

Hayden drummed his fingers upon the table felt. “Each
time you cross the Channel, David, your argot becomes more
colorful. I know your facility amuses Grandmere, but I find it
vulgar. If you will not engage in civilized conversation, I shall
have at my cards”

David quickly apologized.

“I note you left the girl dangling more than two months,”
Hayden continued. “Even the most complacent of females
would not have appreciated that, and Miss Caswell is far from
complacent. She might well credit Miss Athington’s aspirations, when she believes you insincere. You’ve just objected to
Grenby and Dumont on much less provocation.”

“She asked for the time. Whether we wed was always Miss
Caswell’s decision.”

“Then perhaps she looks for more enthusiasm in you. She
is too much like you, David, with too great a preference for
action. She may interpret your reticence as indifference. Can
you claim it isn’t so? You have been too nice.”

David did not volunteer just how often he had been impertinent enough to steal kisses.

“She did say no?” Hayden pressed, watching his face with
interest.

“Quite clearly. She says she does not want me-and that she
might want others”

“No woman can be trusted to tell the truth”

“She is different.”

“She is not” Hayden held up a palm as David would have
protested. “Do you want my advice, or did you simply wish to
squawk?”

“You do know how to flatter a man, Myles. God help you
should you ever find yourself in like circumstances.”

“I shan’t,” he countered. “And you must act as though your
own position has not altered. You must act as though still betrothed. ‘Twill be a kindness to both of you” Hayden must
have read the disbelief on his face. “Oh, come, David. I know
you can dissemble well enough to turn most Drury Lane thespians out on their ears. Haven’t you convinced the world
you’re a good-hearted fellow?”

David ignored the jab. “Pretending nothing has changed
hardly seems fair to her. I pressed her for a decision, and she
gave me one”

Hayden shrugged. “Mon frere, you mustn’t be disheartened.
`All is fair,’” he offered blandly, “‘in love and war.’ And you
are at both. Besides”-he leaned back into his seat-“if you
do not act engaged, you are apt to spend your meager time in
town bein’ pitied, like a proper fool. Best to keep the upper
hand. Your strategy, Major, must be to fight for her.”

“A tall order when, as you say, I may leave in a matter of
days”

“The tactics must be your own” Hayden yawned. “Were I
you, I shouldn’t spend too much time reflecting on every pifflin’ procedure.”

“‘Piffling,’ Myles? When did you ever?” As that elicited a
smile, David added, “Your grand strategy forgets a potential
snag. As Miss Caswell has probably already informed her father
and brothers, they will enforce her will.”

“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten the brothers. They are a proper team,
aren’t they?”

“And Kit in particular is a rackety fellow.”

“Yes,” Hayden mused aloud. “His vowels are no rarity. I’ve
heard he’s in deep with Dumont.”

“Yet you tell me Dumont’s name is linked to Billie
Caswell’s?”

“Perhaps for reasons other than affection. Sometimes snares
are set for larger game”

David keenly felt his frustration. Kit Caswell appeared set
to cause more distress for his family. He would end up in
more than one black book. And once David himself was off
on the Continent, he would have no means of aiding Billie.

“You are certain, Myles, about Kit Caswell?”

“These things are weighed at the tables, David. If Christopher Caswell does not make good on a great deal-and soonthings are likely to go ill for him.”

“Surely you haven’t tried him?”

Hayden smiled. “I’m not in the habit of fleecing puppies.
And wagering with Caswell would be unseemly. Bein’ all in
the family.”

“No longer.”

“Nevertheless. Consider that I aid your subterfuge. But
someone else will press him. And then I should worry about
his sister-and her portion.” David’s dark thoughts must have
been all too evident, for Hayden asked lightly, “What shall you be doing in the near term-as you see to the welfare of
the realm?”

“I’ve curtailed Barton’s leave and must help cajole those I
might to rejoining. With luck there should be considerable esprit. And I must see Grandmere.”

As David rose to his feet, Hayden groaned. “She will take
this badly,” he said. “You are her favorite.”

David’s gaze measured him. “You are a fool, Myles.”

Hayden shrugged. “Is there ought I might do to aid you?”

“You might keep an eye out for Kit Caswell and Dumont”

“Easy enough. Brothers are the very devil, aren’t they?” And with Hayden’s smile and idle salute, David found himself dismissed.

He mulled over Hayden’s advice as he set about writing a
letter to the Duke and Duchess of Braughton. He said nothing
to his parents of Miss Caswell’s defection, leaving that particular to Sir Moreton Caswell’s communication. But David
could not similarly mask from his grandmother the state of
his heart or his plans to leave. When the dowager duchess received him that afternoon, she insisted that they go out at once
to discuss matters on a drive in the park.

“Grandmere, it is gray and chilly,” he protested. “And you
have been ill.”

“Non, mon brave. We must have the air!” And so the stately
barouche and four was ordered up, and David, tucking several
lap robes about his octogenarian relative, watched her with
concern.

“I do worry about your health, Grandmere.”

“Pah! You think me so decrepit? Perhaps you already have
your eye on what I shall leave to you!”

David smiled broadly. “I assure you, I never think of such.
I should have to wait a very long while in any event”

“Because I do not go to war.” Her still strikingly attractive
features were concerned as she squeezed his hand. “I worry
for you, David.”

“You know you mustn’t. I have always returned to you”

She tried to smile. “This Bonaparte! I knew that he would
do something like this!”

“Did you?” David laughed. “You cannot convince me that
you suspected anything of the sort! If you did, you should
have advised the rest of us. We might have been better prepared for his return.”

She airily waved a tiny hand in an elegant glove. “He will
believe himself welcome. He will believe himself loved. He
has so much the swelled head! But it is only that King Louis
has proved so weak.”

“If no one dares counter him, Bonaparte will grasp power
by default. He may not be loved, but he might still be effective.”

“Perhaps he will be content to leave the rest of us alone.”

“Do you think that likely, Grandmere?”

She shook her head, crowned with its extravagantly beribboned bonnet. “I fear not. I fear not. But there is that chanceAh!” she said waving. “There is Lady Eloise. Three times a
widow! Does she not look spry?” Grandmere was clearly delighted to be out, to see and to be seen, to tease her forbearing
servants and her patient grandson. For some minutes she chattered about the others around them; then she asked abruptly,
“And now, mon petit, what of your affaire de coeur?”

“Affaire de coeur, Grandmere? There is no love affair. Miss
Caswell has dismissed me”

He supposed it encouraging that she should look so surprised.

“You have lost her?”

“I am not certain, Grandmere,” he said dryly, “that she
was mine to lose. Did you not tell me at the New Year that her
`puppy love’ would pass?”

“That might have been replaced by something deeper.”

“Apparently not.”

“Ah! You are brusque with me! So she broke with you just
this morning-with this news?”

“No. Before. Yesterday evening.”

“Before …” she said softly, in much the same considering
tone of voice Hayden had used. “Then perhaps she now
regrets-and will change her mind.”

“If so, she must be patient. I do not intend to see her again
for some time.”

“But that is cruel, David! Your Miss Billie will wish to see
you. You are not one to play at the games” At which David
dared not divulge his intention to follow Hayden’s strategy
and play very much “at the games”

“While I am away, Grandmere,” he said, diverting her, “I
should appreciate it if you would look to Miss Caswell’s interests. If she is truly captivated by those suitors mentioned
here in town, I must doubt her judgment. She is very young and
has been left too much to her own devices.”

“Perhaps she is tired of being treated as so young. She is
what-eighteen?”

“Nineteen. But I fear her parents-preoccupied as they
were by Lady Caswell’s ill health-were always most inattentive. And one brother, Kit, is nothing but trouble.”

“Children suffer from improper attention-from indulgence-as well as the neglect,” she intoned sagely.

“And what were our failings, then, Grandmere?” he teased
her.

“My grandsons do not fail. I took great care it should not
be so” She smiled. “Mais, it reste a savoir! It remains to be
seen!”

As he laughed, she watched him fondly for a moment before turning to look out at the park.

“I remember la gamine Billie,” she said, “from many years
ago”