What Happens in London (19 page)

Again the nod.

“
She was, of course, shielded from the weather in her tiny chamber, but the window
—”

“Mr. Sebastian Grey,” came the butler’s voice.

Harry looked up from the book with some surprise. “Here to see Lady Olivia?” he asked.

“Here to see you,” the butler informed him, sounding vaguely put out by the whole thing.

“Ah. Well. Show him in, then.”

Sebastian entered a moment later, already halfway through his sentence: “—told me to find you here. I must say, it’s very convenient.” He stopped short and blinked a few times, staring at the prince with surprise. “Your Highness,” he said, bowing.

“My cousin,” Harry said.

“I recall,” Alexei said icily. “Clumsy with champagne.”

“So dreadful of me,” Sebastian said, settling into a chair. “I’m an absolute dunce, you know. Spilled wine on the Chancellor of the Exchequer just last week.”

Harry was fairly certain that Sebastian had never had cause to be in the same room as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, much less close enough to hurl wine on his boots.

But this he kept to himself.

“What are you fine gentlemen doing this afternoon?” Sebastian asked.

“Is it afternoon?” Harry inquired.

“Only just.”

“Sir Harry is reading to me,” the prince said.

Sebastian looked at Harry with unconcealed interest.

“He speaks the truth,” Harry said, holding up
Miss Butterworth
.

“
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
,” Sebastian said approvingly. “Excellent choice.”

“You have read this?” Alexei asked.

“It’s not as good as
Miss Davenport and the Dark Marquis
, of course, but worlds better than
Miss Sainsbury and the Mysterious Colonel
.”

Harry found himself rendered speechless.

“I’m reading
Miss Truesdale and the Silent Gentleman
right now.”

“Silent?” Harry echoed.

“There is a noticeable lack of dialogue,” Sebastian confirmed.

“Why are you here?” the prince asked bluntly.

Sebastian turned to him with a sunny expression, as if he did not notice that the prince quite palpably detested him. “Needed to speak with my cousin, of course.” He settled into his seat, looking for all the world as if he expected to be there all day. “But it can wait.”

Harry had no ready response to that. Neither, apparently, did the prince.

“Go on,” Sebastian urged.

Harry had no idea what he was talking about.

“With the book. I thought I might give it a listen. I haven’t read it in ages.”

“You’re going to sit here while I read aloud to you?” Harry asked dubiously.

“And to Prince Alexei,” Sebastian reminded him. He closed his eyes. “Don’t mind me. It helps to picture the scene.”

Harry had not thought that anything could bring about a sense of kinship with the prince, but as they exchanged glances it was clear that both of them thought Sebastian was insane.

Harry cleared his throat, backed up to the beginning of the sentence, and read: “
She was, of course, shielded from the weather in her tiny chamber, but the window casings rattled with such noise that there would be no way she would find slumber this evening.
”

Harry looked up. The prince was listening intently, despite the bored expression on his face. Sebastian was completely enrapt.

Either that or asleep.

“
Huddled on her thin, cold bed, she could not help but recall all of the events that had led her to this bleak spot, on this bleak night. But this, dear reader, is not where our story begins
.”

Sebastian’s eyes popped open. “You’re only on the first page?”

Harry quirked a brow. “Did you expect that His Highness and I had been meeting each evening, conducting secret reading sessions?”

“Give me the book,” Sebastian said, reaching out and snatching it from Harry’s hands. “You recite dreadfully.”

Harry turned to the prince. “I have little training.”

“
It was a dark and windy night,
” Sebastian began, and Harry had to admit he did bring a great deal of drama to it. Even Vladimir was leaning forward to listen, and he didn’t speak English.

“
—Miss Priscilla Butterworth was certain that at any moment the rain would begin, pouring down
from the heavens in sheets and streams, dousing all that lay within her purview.
”

Dear God, it almost sounded like a sermon. Sebastian had clearly missed his calling.

“‘Purview’ is not used correctly,” Prince Alexei said.

Sebastian looked up, his eyes flashing with irritation. “Of course it is.”

Alexei jabbed a finger in Harry’s direction. “He said it is not.”

“It’s not,” Harry said with a shrug.

“What’s wrong with it?” Sebastian demanded.

“It implies that what she sees is under her power or control.”

“How do you know it’s not?”

“I don’t,” Harry admitted, “but she doesn’t seem in control of anything else.” He looked over at the prince. “Her mother was pecked to death by pigeons.”

“That happens,” Alexei said with a nod.

Both Harry and Sebastian looked over at him in shock.

“It is not accidental,” Alexei demurred.

“I may need to revisit my desire to see Russia,” Sebastian said.

“Swift justice,” Alexei stated. “It is the only way.”

Harry couldn’t believe he was asking, but it had to be said. “Pigeons are swift?”

Alexei shrugged, quite possibly the least clipped and precise gesture Harry had seen him make. “Justice is swift. The punishment, not so much.”

This was met with silence and a stare, then Sebastian turned back to Harry and said, “How did you know about the pigeons?”

“Olivia told me. She read ahead.”

Sebastian’s lips pressed together disapprovingly. Harry felt his own part in surprise. It was a singularly odd expression to see on his cousin’s face. Harry couldn’t recall the last time Sebastian had disapproved of anything.

“May I continue?” Sebastian asked, voice dripping with solicitousness.

The prince gave his nod, and Harry murmured, “Please do,” and they all settled in for a listen.

Even Vladimir.

O
livia’s second coiffure of the day took considerably more time to arrange than the first. Sally, still irritated at having been cut off mid-braid, took one look at Olivia’s hair and had not gone lightly with the “I told you so’s.”

And although it went against Olivia’s nature to sit meekly and take such abuse, sit meekly she did, since she couldn’t very well tell Sally that the only reason her hair was falling from its bun in huge messy chunks was because Sir Harry Valentine had had his hands in it.

“There,” Sally declared, inserting the final pin with what Olivia deemed unnecessary force. “This will stay in all week if you’re so inclined.”

Olivia would not have been surprised had Sally painted her with glue, just to keep every hair in place.

“Don’t go out in the rain,” Sally warned.

Olivia stood and headed toward the door. “It’s not raining.”

“It could.”

“But it’s—” Olivia cut herself off. Good heavens, what was she doing, standing there arguing with her maid? Sir Harry was still downstairs, waiting for her.

Just the thought of him made her giddy.

“Why are you skipping?” Sally asked suspiciously.

Olivia paused, her hand on her doorknob. “I wasn’t skipping.”

“You were doing”—Sally did a funny little hopping movement—“this.”

“I am walking sedately out of the room,” Olivia announced. She stepped into the hall. “Very sedately! Like a pallbearer I am…” She turned, ascertained that Sally was out of earshot, and dashed down the stairs.

Upon reaching the ground floor, she did opt for a sedate, pallbearish pace, and it was perhaps because of this that her footfalls were so quiet, and she reached the drawing room without making anyone aware of her approach.

What she saw…

There were really no words to describe it.

She stood in the doorway, thinking this would be a fine time to create a list titled
Things I Do Not Expect To See in My Drawing Room
, but she was not sure she could come up with anything that topped what she
did
see in her drawing room, which was Sebastian Grey, standing atop a table, reading (with great emotion) from
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
.

If that weren’t enough—and it really ought to have
been enough, since what was Sebastian Grey doing at Rudland House, anyway?—Harry and the prince were sitting side by side on the sofa, and neither appeared to have suffered bodily harm at the hands of the other.

That was when Olivia noticed the three housemaids, perched on a settee in the corner, gazing at Sebastian with utter rapture.

One of them might even have had tears in her eyes.

And there was Huntley, standing off to the side, openmouthed, clearly overcome with emotion.

“
‘Grandmother! Grandmother!’
” Sebastian was saying, his voice higher pitched than usual. “
‘Don’t go. I beg of you. Please, please don’t leave me here all by myself.’
”

One of the housemaids began to quietly weep.

“
Priscilla stood in front of the great house for several minutes, a small, lonely figure watching her grandmother’s hired carriage speed down the lane and disappear from view. She had been left on the doorstep at Fitzgerald Place, deposited like an unwanted bundle
.”

Another housemaid began to sniffle. All three were holding hands.

“
And no one
”—Sebastian’s voice dropped to a breathy, dramatic register—“
knew she was there. Her grandmother had not even knocked upon the door to alert her cousins of her arrival
.”

Huntley was shaking his head, his eyes wide with shock and sorrow. It was the most emotion Olivia had ever seen the butler display.

Sebastian closed his eyes and placed one hand on his heart. “
She was but eight years old
.”

He closed the book.

Silence. Utter silence. Olivia looked about the room, realizing no one knew she was there.

And then—

“Bravo!” Huntley was the first to cheer, clapping his hands with great fervor. The maids joined in next, sniffling through their applause. Even Harry and the prince clapped, although Harry’s face held more amusement than anything else.

Sebastian opened his eyes, and he was the first to see her. “Lady Olivia,” he said with a smile. “How long have you been standing there?”

“Since Priscilla begged her grandmother not to leave.”

“She was a heartless woman,” Huntley said.

“She did what needed to be done,” the prince argued.

“With all due respect, Your Highness—”

Olivia’s mouth dropped open. Her butler was arguing with
royalty
?

“—if she had tried a little harder—”

“—she would not have been able to feed the child,” the prince interrupted. “Any fool could see that.”

“It was heartbreaking,” one of the maids said.

“I cried,” said another.

The third nodded, apparently unable to speak.

“You are a wonderful speaker,” the first one continued.

Sebastian gave the three of them a melting smile. “Thank you for listening,” he murmured.

They sighed.

Olivia rubbed her eyes, still trying to make sense of
the scene. She turned to Harry with a searching look. Surely he had an explanation.

“It’s really quite a bit better with Sebastian reading it,” he told her.

“It really couldn’t have been worse,” she murmured.

“This should be made into Russian,” the prince said. “It would be very much a success.”

“I thought you said your literature had a deeper tradition,” Olivia said.

“This is very deep,” he replied. “As a trench.”

“Shall I begin the next chapter?” Sebastian asked.

“Yes!” came the resounding response.

“Oh, please,” begged one of the maids.

Olivia still stood unmoving, only her eyes darting back and forth. As splendid as Sebastian’s performance was, she was not sure she could sit through an entire chapter of it without laughing. Which would not endear her to…well…anyone. She certainly didn’t want to fall into Huntley’s disfavor. Everyone knew he ran the house.

Maybe this meant she could slip away. She still hadn’t had breakfast. And she hadn’t finished with the newspaper, either. If Sebastian was entertaining all of the guests (and the household staff, too, but Olivia was willing to overlook this), then she could escape to the breakfast room and read.

Or maybe go shopping. She did need a new hat.

She was pondering her options when Vladimir suddenly spoke. In Russian, of course.

“He says you should have been on the stage,” Alexei said to Sebastian.

Sebastian gave a pleased smile and bowed in Vladimir’s direction. “
Spasibo
,” he said, thanking him.

“You speak Russian?” the prince said, turning sharply in Sebastian’s direction.

“Only the very basics,” Sebastian quickly replied. “I can say thank you in fourteen languages. Alas, please in but twelve.”

“Really?” Olivia asked, far more interested in this than the
Miss Butterworth
recitation. “Which languages?”

“I also find it useful to know ‘I need a drink,’” Sebastian said to the prince.

“
Da
,” he said approvingly. “In Russian, it is
Ya nuzhdayus v napitkyeh
.”

“
Spasibo
,” Sebastian replied.

“No, really,” Olivia said, even though no one was paying her any attention. “I want to know which languages.”

“Does anyone know what time it is?” Harry asked.

“There’s a clock on the mantel,” Olivia said without looking at him. “Mr. Grey,” she persisted.

“One moment,” he said to her, before turning back to the prince. “I am very curious about your servant,” he said. “He does not speak English, does he? How did he follow the recitation?”

The prince and Vladimir shared a quick conversation in Russian, and then the prince turned back to Sebastian and said, “He says that he can follow the emotion in your voice.”

Sebastian looked delighted.

“And also he knows a few words,” the prince added.

“Still,” Sebastian murmured.

“Portuguese,” Olivia said, wondering if anyone planned to pay her any attention that afternoon. “You must have learned some Portuguese in the army. How do you say ‘thank you’ in Portuguese?”

“
Obrigado
,” Harry said.

She turned to him with some surprise.

He gave a little shrug. “I learned a bit, too.”

“
Obrigado
,” she repeated.

“
Obrigada
for you,” he said. “Not that you are likely to be mistaken for a man.”

It was not the most resounding of compliments, but she decided to take it, nonetheless.

“What is the strangest language you can thank people in?” she asked Sebastian.

He thought about that for a moment, then said, “
Köszönöm
.”

She looked at him expectantly.

“Magyar,” he said, and at her blank expression added, “It’s spoken in parts of Hungary.”

“Why do you know that?”

“I have no idea,” he said.

“It was a woman,” the prince said knowingly. “If you don’t remember, it was a woman.”

Olivia decided it was not worth the effort to feel insulted for that.

“
Kiitos
,” Prince Alexei said, giving Sebastian a
top that
sort of look, before adding, “Finnish.”

“My heartfelt thanks to you,” Sebastian said. “My repertoire now numbers fifteen.”

Olivia thought about saying
merci
, but decided she’d only look desperate.

“What can you do?” the prince asked Harry.

“Yes, Harry,” Sebastian said. “What can you do?”

Harry gave his cousin a cool look, then answered, “I’m afraid I’ve got nothing out of the ordinary.”

Olivia had the feeling that there had been some sort of unspoken conversation between the two cousins, but she was not given the opportunity to consider it further, because Sebastian turned back to the prince and asked, “How does one say ‘please’ in Finnish?”

“
Ole hyvä
.”

“Excellent.” He nodded once, apparently tucking the small piece of knowledge into the back of his mind. “One never knows when one might come across a lovely lady from Finland.”

Olivia was wondering how she might possibly regain control of her drawing room, when she heard a knock at the front door. Huntley immediately excused himself to go answer it.

He returned moments later with a young man she had never met. Although…a little taller than average, dark brown hair…He was almost certainly—

“Mr. Edward Valentine,” Huntley announced. He raised his brows. “Here to see Sir Harry Valentine.”

“Edward,” Harry said immediately, standing up. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, of course,” Edward replied, looking awkwardly about the room. He clearly had not expected so many people. He handed Harry an envelope. “This came for you. I was told it was urgent.”

Harry took the envelope and placed it in his coat pocket, then introduced his brother to everyone in the room, even the three housemaids, who were still sitting in a neat little row on the settee.

“Why is Seb standing on a table?” Edward asked.

“Entertaining the troops,” Sebastian replied, saluting him.

“Sebastian was reading from
Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron
,” Harry explained.

“Oh,” Edward exclaimed, his face lighting with enthusiasm for the first time since he’d entered the room. “I’ve read that.”

“Did you like it?” Sebastian asked.

“Brilliant. Great fun. The writing is a bit spotty in places, but the story is fantastic.”

Sebastian seemed to find that very interesting. “Fantastic good, or fantastic like fantasy?”

“A bit of both, I suppose,” Edward replied. He looked about the room. “Do you mind if I join you?”

Olivia opened her mouth to say, “Of course not,” but she was beaten to the punch by Sebastian, Harry,
and
the prince.

Really, whose home
was
this?

Edward looked over at her—it was interesting, he looked nothing like Harry save for the coloring, which was identical—and said, “Er, do you plan to come in, Lady Olivia?”

She realized that she was still standing near the doorway. All the rest of the gentlemen were sitting down, but it was unlikely that Edward, who had only just met her, would do so while she still stood.

“Actually, I thought I might go out to the garden,” she said, her voice trailing off when she realized that no one was protesting her departure. “Or I’ll sit down.”

She found a seat off to the side, not so far from the three maids, who gave her nervous looks.

“Please,” she said to them, “stay. I couldn’t possibly ask you to miss the rest of the performance.”

They thanked her with such devotion that Olivia could only wonder how she would explain this to her mother. If Sebastian came by each afternoon to read (for surely he would not attempt the entire novel in one swoop), and the maids came to listen, that would be quite a few fireplaces that did not get cleaned out.

“Chapter Two,” Sebastian announced. A reverent hush fell over the room, prompting a most irreverent giggle from Olivia.

The prince shot her a dirty look, as did Vladimir and Huntley.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, and placed her hands primly in her lap. It was time, apparently, to be on her best behavior.

Satisfying Endings for Miss Butterworth

By Olivia Bevelstoke

The baron is quite sane, but Priscilla is mad!

Reemergence of pox. New, deadlier strain.

Priscilla leaves the baron and devotes her life to the care and feeding of carrier pigeons.

The baron eats the pigeons.

The baron eats her.

The last one would be a bit of a stretch, but there was no reason why the baron could not have gone mad while exploring in the darkest jungle, where he fell in with a society of cannibals.