The Irish Duke (5 page)

“Yes. We were picking flowers in the garden, when it happened quite suddenly. I sent you running for help. But you couldn’t possibly remember it—you were only about three at the time.”

“What were the flowers?”

“They were lupins, darling.”

Louisa was distracted from her dark thoughts when she spotted Georgy returning from her ride. She joined her sister, and together they walked up to the house.

“Did you know that the only home we’ll ever have will be our husband’s?”

“Yes, Lu, and I’m about to turn twenty. I have far less time than you.”

“If we refuse to marry, we will have nothing,” Lu said indignantly.

“Well, I shan’t refuse to marry. I shall relentlessly pursue every male who crosses my path and enjoy every moment. Husband hunting should be a lot more fun than bagging game.”

“I don’t want a lord and master who will use me as a brood mare. I would far rather be a dancer on the stage than a wife and mother.”

“But even a dancer can’t manage without a man to pay her bills. Girls on the stage have lovers to pay for their rooms, and clothes, and carriages.”

“Lovers? Men who expect to sleep with you?”

“Men who expect sexual favors. Don’t be so naive, Lu. It’s far easier to marry a doting husband. Men are putty in your hands when you use the right bait.”

Lu glanced down at her sister’s grass stains. “You’d best change before dinner, Georgy. If Father ever finds out you act provocatively with your groom, there will be hell to pay.”

“I know
you
won’t tell him, so how the devil will he find out? Besides, everything I do, I learned from Mother. Men cannot resist her. She feeds on courtly love. I’m just using Dick for practice.”

“Courtly love is innocent. Uncle Holly dedicates poems to her beauty. It’s platonic.”

“Don’t be naive. There’s no such thing,” Georgy insisted.

Louisa changed the subject. “What would you like for your birthday?”

Her sister winked suggestively. “What I’d like and what I’ll get are two different things. I’d like some suitors, but until they come along I’ll make do with Dick.”

 

A few days later, Edwin finished the portrait of Louisa in her ballet gown and allowed her to see it.

“Oh, Lanny, you have made me look beautiful. It flatters me.” Her pulse was fluttering wildly and she could hear her heartbeat thudding in her ears.

“I but captured your natural beauty, my dear. The bloom of youth on your cheek, the lovely curve of your throat, hint at the budding womanhood beneath your innocence.”

She caught her breath.
I think I love you.
She swayed toward him.

“Don’t lose your balance.” He caught her shoulders in strong hands and steadied her. Then he took the canvas from the easel. “Let’s go and show your mother.”

Her flesh tingled where his hands had rested.
He touched me. I think he was about to kiss me, if he hadn’t thought I was going to fall in my ballet slippers.

They found Georgina kneeling on the rug in her sitting room, watching baby Rachel ride her rocking horse.

“Lanny finished my portrait. We’ve come to show you.”

“Oh, it’s lovely. You’ve perfectly captured her delicacy.”

“Louisa’s resemblance to you is unmistakable, Your Grace.”

“You flatter me, Lanny.”

“You and the baby make such a beautiful picture. Now that she’s learning to walk, I’d love to paint you together, helping Rachel take her first steps,” he suggested.

“What a lovely idea.” Louisa picked up her baby sister and kissed her cheek. “She has the prettiest red curls in the world.”

Edwin held out his hand and helped Georgina to her feet. Then she lifted Rachel from Louisa’s arms, and when the baby began to chortle, they all laughed with delight.

Elizabeth walked into the sitting room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw them. “Excuse me. I didn’t mean to intrude on such an intimate family gathering.”

“Bessy, of course you’re not intruding,” Georgina said smoothly. “Mr. Landseer has just finished a portrait of Louisa.”

“I’m amazed Woburn needs its own resident artist.” Her tone was disapproving.

“We are fortunate to have him. Painting the Russells is becoming a full-time occupation,” Georgina said lightly. “Edwin has his own residence and studio in London.”

“Really?” she drawled, with barely concealed skepticism. “William was out shooting. I just wondered if he’d returned. I’m sure you’ll excuse me?”

Baby Rachel was about to burst into tears.

“Bessy has that effect on me too, darling.” Georgina tickled her daughter’s tummy, eliciting another chortle, and they all gave a relieved laugh.

Louisa picked up her portrait. “I think I’d like to keep this in my bedchamber for a few days before it is added to the picture gallery.” She blushed prettily. “Thank you so much, Lanny.”

“It always gives me great pleasure to paint you, my dear.”

Louisa was walking on a cloud as she carried her portrait upstairs to her bedchamber. She removed a sketch her mother had done, replaced it with Lanny’s painting, and stood back to admire it. “He has made me look beautiful. This must be the way he sees me.” Her heart sang at the thought.
Lanny is different from other men. He’s never arrogant and selfish. He’s talented, and funny, and so very handsome. After I make my debut, I hope he will court me. I don’t want to marry Lanny, but it might be fun to have him court me.
Louisa went off in a reverie, where a pair of sparkling blue eyes gazed at her with longing, and a pair of lips claimed hers with a possessive kiss.

“It’s such a beautiful day; I think I’ll go for a ride. Perhaps I’ll ask Lanny to come with me.” Louisa changed into a green riding dress that showed off the curve of her young breasts. She pulled on her boots and then she brushed her dark curls and pinned on a saucy feathered hat. She winked at her reflection. “A-hunting we will go!”

On her way to the main staircase, Louisa crossed the hall that led into the east wing where William and his wife were staying. The sound of Bessy’s shrill voice carried to her and she stopped to listen.

“She’s so brazen about it! There she was displaying their love child to him, like some trophy. The woman is scandalous. She brings disgrace to the entire family.”

“Keep your voice down, Bessy. The servants will hear you.”

“Servants aren’t blind, William. One look at those blatant red curls proves the child isn’t a Russell. I don’t know how your father can turn a blind eye and allow the libertine to live here under the same roof.”

Louisa gasped.
How can William’s wife say such wicked things about Mother? She’s insinuating that Rachel is Edwin Landseer’s child!
Louisa wanted to march down the hall and slap Bessy’s face for uttering such evil lies. She clapped her hands over her ears so she wouldn’t hear any more vile accusations and fled from the house.

Her heart was slamming against her chest as she saddled Coltsfoot and mounted her. She took off at full gallop, scattering the fan-tailed doves as they strutted about the stable courtyard.

She headed to the wooded parkland where a stream cut through the trees. She saw Georgy’s horse tethered to a tree and quickly dismounted. Her sister was wading in the water with her skirts tucked up above her bare legs. Dick lay in the grass, watching her.

Louisa jerked her head at Dick, in a gesture that told him to leave. When he mounted his horse and rode off, she looked at her sister. “I have something
terrible
to tell you.”

“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Louisa wrung her hands. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning.” Georgy waded from the water and sat on the bank.

“Lanny finished my portrait and we went to show Mother. We found her in the sitting room playing with Rachel. We were all laughing and having a good time when Bessy walked in on us. The happy mood changed instantly, as it always does when she comes on the scene.

“I put up my portrait in my bedchamber and decided to go for a ride. When I passed the east wing, I could hear Bessy saying the most dreadful things to William.”

“I think he’s afraid to stand up to her. She needs a clout round the ear!”

“By God, I almost rushed in and gave her one. She said that mother was brazenly displaying their
love child
to Lanny. She said that Rachel’s red curls prove she isn’t a Russell. The evil bitch insinuated that mother and Edwin are having an affair and that Rachel is their child!”

“Oh dear.” Georgy sighed heavily. “Lu, come and sit down.”

Louisa threw herself down on the grass.

“I must admit,” Georgy said tentatively, “that I’ve thought the same thing.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Lu demanded.

“Father is past sixty and that stroke debilitated him badly. Frankly, I don’t think he was up to fathering another child.”

Cold fingers crept around Louisa’s heart. “What are you saying? That Edwin Landseer is Rachel’s father?”

“Well, it’s plain to see that Lanny is enchanted with Mother. He’s painted more than a score of portraits of her. And he was in the Highlands with us the autumn that Mother quickened with child.”

“You think Lanny is in
love
with her
?”
Louisa cried in disbelief.

“All you have to do is see them together. He’s besotted, like all her other admirers.”

“But Lanny is only in his twenties. Mother is forty-seven.”

“You’re so unworldly, Lu. Age has nothing to do with it. Most married women have affairs, especially when they are saddled with aging husbands.”

Suddenly Louisa remembered the intimate sketch Edwin had made of her mother with her breast bared. She felt the cold fingers in her chest begin to squeeze. She knew they wouldn’t stop until they had crushed her heart. She let out a sob and got to her feet. Tears blinded her eyes as she rode back to the house.

She dashed up to her room and took the portrait from her wall. She carried it down to the long portrait gallery and left it standing against the wall. She knew that she would associate Edwin Landseer with the smell of oil paint for the rest of her life and the stench of it would make her want to spew.

“T
he gang from Oxford will be arriving today. I hope they bring some of their friends with them. We are in dire need of suitors. I shall take pains to dress for dinner,” Georgy declared as she rummaged through her wardrobe.

“I might forgo dinner.” Louisa shuddered. “The only thing worse than dining with Edward, Charles, and Jack is putting up with their loutish friends.” Men were on Louisa’s black list at the moment, especially young ones. She had been devastated over the incident with Landseer and totally avoided him. Her feelings toward her mother had suffered a blow as well. In truth, she felt alienated from everyone.

“Oxford men are thought to be the cream of the crop. Most of our prime ministers were educated there and you cannot deny you have a keen interest in politics.”

“No doubt some of them possess fine intellects, but tell the truth and shame the devil, Georgy. You have no interest in their politics or their intellects.”

Georgy laughed. “No, it’s a bit lower than that.”

 

That afternoon, six young nobles sat in John Russell’s famed Woburn library, drinking claret. The duke’s three sons had each brought home a friend from Oxford for the holidays. His son Edward’s best friend was Teddy Fox, whose father was Lord Holland. Both young men had now completed their studies at Oxford.

“Do you plan on making the Grand Tour, Teddy?” the duke inquired.

“No, sir. It is politics for me.”

“Do you intend to run for office?”

“That would be an ideal place to start. But eventually I hope to join the diplomatic corps.”

“The seat for Horsham in West Sussex is open. I’ll speak with your father. With our combined support, you should have no trouble.” Though the Duke of Bedford no longer played an active role in politics, he still had a great deal of political clout and used his influence behind the scenes.

“Thank you, sir.” Teddy saluted with his glass and drained it.

“Good. I’ll campaign with you,” Edward Russell promised, “but once you are elected, I intend to pursue a naval career.”

“I prefer the army,” Charles said, “but I still have another year at Oxford.”

John glanced from Charles to his son Edward. “I wish you two were set on political rather than military careers. However, I’ll see what I can do. I’ll invite the Duke of Clarence to Woburn. Though William is no longer head of the Admiralty, he can still pull a few strings. I’ll write him an invitation tonight.”

George Grey was pleased. “That’s jolly good of you, Your Grace. I too plan to pursue a career in the navy.”

The duke’s son Jack spoke up. “I haven’t decided on a career yet. I have no particular zeal in any direction. The same cannot be said for our friend James, however. Abercorn has a consuming passion.”

John Russell focused his attention on James Hamilton. “What is that, Abercorn?”

“Ireland, Your Grace. I’ve anticipated the honor of meeting you for some years. Irish Catholic emancipation has always been a cause dear to your heart as well as mine, and at long last your son Lord John, as a leading Whig, got it passed.”

“Yes, and the king finally signed it into law. You are a man after my own heart, Abercorn. I’m very proud of Johnny’s accomplishment, though we should give Wellington’s Tory government some credit,” he conceded.

“Oh, I do, Your Grace. Wellington was shrewd enough to trust Lord John to get the bill passed.”

“Johnny will be visiting us shortly,” the duke declared.

“I cannot wait to shake his hand. I hope he arrives before I leave for Ireland. I go as often as I can. It is an honor to be invited to Woburn. I believe I can learn a great deal from you.”
Actually, I have two consuming passions: Ireland and your daughter Lady Louisa. I have every intention of making her my wife.