The Diabolical Baron (8 page)

Richard swallowed. “Back on the Peninsula when
our pay was months in arrears, we joked about having
fifty pounds to call our own. I have trouble compre
hending thirty thousand pounds.”

“Your Uncle Rodrick could not only imagine it—he
could spend it,” the lawyer said with a faint smile.

“No wonder this country is having so much social
unrest. It is abominable that a few have so much, and
the rest so little.”

Chelmsford shot him a startled look. “I thought you
were fighting republican ideals, not learning to es
pouse them.”

Richard shook off his seriousness with a laugh. “The
problem was not that the French were republicans.
After all, Boney crowned himself emperor. We fought
because the Corsican wanted more than he was enti
tled to—far, far more. I don’t know that I am precisely a
republican, but controlling the kind of fortune you speak of seems more a burden than a blessing. Are
there any alternatives?”

“You can take on the earldom with all its problems,
learn management, and make the estate productive
with perhaps five years of hard work. You can accept
the title, sell the unencumbered property, and have a
comfortable income for the rest of your life. Or you can
walk away and let Reggie inherit. He will almost cer
tainly sell out to Lord Radford, who owns the adjoining
estate. I would be sorry to see Wargrave broken up, but
perhaps it would be the best solution. Lord Radford is said to be an exemplary landlord.”

“I have trouble seeing myself as a landed gentle
man,” Richard said. “A soldier’s experience of agricul
ture is limited to foraging for food when the supply
trains are lost.”

“There is nothing beyond your ability to learn,”
Chelmsford replied. “I think a stay at Wargrave Park
would be quite an education. Will you come with me
on my next visit there?”

Richard hesitated. Josiah was playing spider
to his fly, trying to entangle him with a web of possibil
ities and obligations. He had no desire for the compli
cation of the title and estate, but further study wouldn’t
hurt. And it would be heaven to get out of the noise
and dust of London.

“I’m willing to visit Wargrave with you, though I
won’t promise to stay there. When is your next visit?”

“Splendid, splendid! It will be in about three weeks,
though I can rearrange my schedule—”

“No need for that,” the captain interrupted. “I have
business to take care of at the Horse Guards. My commission needs to be sold, and there are some friends I
want to trace. The end of the month will be fine.”

Chelmsford beamed, the very image of a satisfied
spider. “You won’t regret this, my boy.”

“Let us hope not.”

* * * *

“Caroline, Caroline, it’s happened! He’s spoken to
Papa and been accepted! It’s all set! It’s wonderful!
Hello, Jessica! I am the happiest woman in the world!”
Gina hurtled into her sister’s bedroom with a velocity
that gravely threatened the mirror, two
china shepherdesses, and a coal-scuttle bonnet on the bed. Caroline rose from the floor where she was pin
ning an embroidered band around her aunt’s hemline
and threw her arms around Gina when that young lady
slowed down.

“That’s marvelous! Not unexpected, but still mar
velous. I assume Gideon had spoken to you privately?
You’ve been looking like the cat in the cream pot for the
last several days. Have you made any wedding plans
yet?”

“Yes, you and Mama and I are to visit the Fallswor
thys in Lincolnshire at the end of this month. Gideon
wants his parents to meet me, and we can work out the
details then. We thought perhaps an August wedding
at the church back home in Great Chisbury. Lots of
summer flowers, and you of course my maid of honor.
It is so fortunate you are here, Jessica. Will you help me
decide on my wedding gown? Something to make me
look slim and elegant for once in my life.”

Gina looked enviously at the sarcenet morning dress
Caroline and her aunt were working on. It was an un
usual shade of russet that complemented Jessica’s rich
auburn hair, and its simple lines and exquisite cut
showed her magnificent figure to perfection. The
mameluke sleeves were tied with dark brown ribbons,
and the embroidered wrist frills matched the band Car
oline was pinning to the hem.

Perfect for Jessica, but no
lesser woman could have done it such justice. Jess had
a flair for fashion and always designed and made her
own clothes. Fortunately she was happy to share her
talent. She smiled her congratulations at Gina.
“I’d be delighted to help. May I be one of the first
to wish you happy? Mr. Fallsworthy is an estimable
young man, and I am sure you will deal extremely well
with each other.”

Gina bounced over to her honorary aunt and gave
her a hug. “Thank you so much. You will come to the
wedding, won’t you? Since you spend part of each
summer with the Sterlings, it shouldn’t be inconve
nient. I will need your fine hand to help keep Mama in
check.” She smiled roguishly. “Of course, you may be
needed to help with Caroline’s wedding plans, too.”

Caroline finished her pinning, then stood and went
to the wardrobe for her lute. “Don’t be silly. Why
would I be getting married?” She took the instrument
out of its case, tuned it a bit, and started strumming
snatches of music.

“What would you like for a wedding march, Ginny? Something dramatic like this?” Heavy chords rumbled through the room. “Or something light and waltz-like?”
Lyrical streams of music. “Or perhaps this.” She moved
into a song commemorating the end of a suc
cessful hunt.

Gina laughed and said, “Spare my blushes in the
hour of my victory. No well-brought-up young lady
would admit to being the hunter rather than the
quarry, and I usually try to look proper.

“And don’t think you can change the subject so easily. Why shouldn’t you be thinking wedding thoughts? Lord Radford has been so very particular in his atten
tions. I think he must be ready to make an offer.”

“Don’t be silly, Gina. He isn’t really interested in
me.”

“No? Then why has he called almost every day for
the last few weeks? And why does he ask you to stand
up at every ball you’ve been to? I swear the man must
be bribing one of the maids to find out where we’ll be.”

Acutely distressed, Caroline started tracing the inlaid patterns around the lute’s sound hole. The deeper
her feelings, the more difficult it became to discuss
them, and Lord Radford’s continuing attentions were
affecting her in ways she found impossible to describe.

She had developed a sense of fatality about him. At
every affair they attended, eventually his dark, elegant
form would appear and he would claim her for danc
ing or conversation. His inexplicable attentions had increased her popularity as half the bucks and dandies in
London sought to discover her mysterious charms. It
had been a deeply uncomfortable period, continually
meeting strangers, feeling the speculative eyes, hearing
murmured conversations stop when she entered the
ladies’ retiring rooms.

“I don’t know what he wants of me, Gina. But think: can you not feel Gideon’s love for you? Isn’t there a
...
a warmth, a sense of caring coming from him?”

Gina thought about that.  Then a
soft smile slowly spread across her face. “Of course. I
know exactly what you mean. It’s like his arms are
around me even when he is across the room.”

“Well, I don’t feel that from Lord Radford. I don’t
even think he likes me particularly. I feel like some kind
of
...
of chore he must accomplish.”

Jessica listened to the conversation with a small
frown between her brows. “Perhaps it is just that he is
unlike any other man you have known. Fashionable gentlemen don’t display their feelings, but why else
would he court you except for love?”

“Perhaps he is using her to make one of his mis
tresses jealous,” Gina said helpfully. “It certainly isn’t
for our money! And there are plenty of experienced
women around for more rewarding flirtations.”

Caroline laughed, her worried mood broken. “If you
mean what I think you mean, you have no delicacy of
mind whatsoever. But I must admit that theory makes
more sense than any other. It may even be true, because
several ladies have been at great pains to inform me, in
the most considerate way, that I am not at all his lord
ship’s type. It is my one solace.”

Her sister shook her head mournfully. “I really can
not understand you. Three-quarters of the women in
London would give their family jewels to be in your
position, and you act as if you have been singled out for deliberate persecution. He is always most charming, he is wonderfully handsome, and such a fortune!
And you, my bird-witted sister, are not even flattered
by the attention. What is it about him that bothers
you?”

“It’s difficult to explain,” Caroline said hesitantly. “It
is not what he does, but what he is—a man used to effortlessly controlling everything around him. I can feel
the leashed force in him. He dominates me without
even trying. And I do not wish to be dominated. Being ignored is much more comfortable.” She laughed a tri
fle nervously. She was trying to make light of it, but
what she said was true: Lord Radford did not have to
do anything to make her shrink; his mere presence was
enough.

Jessica was uneasy about Caroline’s remark, but un
certain how to reply. She could understand how a
forceful, arrogant man would make her shy niece un
happy. She was reminded of a Spanish exhibit she had
seen of a lion and a lamb living together in a cage. It
was an impressive sight, but she rather thought the
lamb had to be replaced regularly.

While she knew very little of Lord Radford, the pic
ture she was getting was very lion-like. She sighed to
herself; if she had gone out in society these last years
she might have met him and been better able to counsel
her niece. Caroline had little experience of men; per
haps she was overreacting. If he were a good person
who truly loved her, he could be a wonderful husband.

“He may be somewhat alarming now, Caro,” her
aunt said carefully. “But he must truly care for you or
he would not be courting you so assiduously. With a
basis of affection, even two very different people may
live in harmony. Indeed, my darling John and I were
quite unlike, and yet that difference was a pleasure to
both of us.”

“There are degrees of difference,” Caroline said
gloomily. “Wine and water may mix with ease, but fire
and water will never blend.”

With a visible effort she
shook off her misgivings and added with a smile,
“Enough of worrying about the dire possibility of be
coming a rich, pampered lady. It is time to talk of
Gina’s bride clothes.”

Chapter 5

Jason Kincaid and George Fitzwilliam had
reached the after-dinner port before conversation
turned to Radford’s courtship. George was resigned to losing the wager, and accepted the loss of his salmon-
fishing privileges with fortitude. Still, he felt a few
qualms about his part in the situation.

“Y’know, Jason, it was a silly bet we made about your
marriage. Would you like to call it off? Most improper. Not at all a suitable topic for gambling.”

“Back out of a wager!” Radford said in mock outrage.
“What kind of a maw-worm do you take me for? Or do you fear losing?”

Fitzwilliam snorted indignantly. “Those would be
fighting words if I were a fighting man, which of course
I ain’t. It’s just that when I see the two of you together,
you both look like you’re coming from the funeral of
your favorite uncle, and you found out he hasn’t left
you anything to boot. I’m willing to concede you my
fishing rights. I just don’t want to see you unhappy the
rest of your life because of a foolish bet. Marriage is a se
rious matter.”