Page 4 of Romancing Daphne

“Surely you are enough of a gentleman that you would not turn your back on a lady in distress.”

How could he argue with that? And yet he wavered.“Something about this still feels wrong.”

Father crossed to the sideboard, unstopping a decanter of sherry.“Whatthe Duke of Kielder has declared right is not for us to deem wrong.”

“Are you certain you are not confusing His Grace with the Almighty?”

“I do know the difference, Tilburn. One possesses endless power, holds the fate of nations in his hand, and is universally feared by saint and sinner alike. The other is—”

“The Almighty,” James drawled. He knew the quip well, having heardsimilar versions for years. “You and the duke may not have qualms aboutthis arrangement, but what about Miss Lancaster? Does she not deserve some say in the scheme?”

Father poured himself a bit of the amber-colored liquor.“She cannot be ignorant of how Society works and must realize how ill-suited she is to the task at hand. Her brother-in-law has, no doubt, enlisted the aid of many young people to act as friend to her. His rallying of the troops will not be done without her knowledge.”

“You make her sound coldheartedly calculating.” James didn’t at all like the picture his father painted.

“Who on Society’s upper rungs isn’t?” Father shrugged as he took adrink.“We may or may not like it, but this is the way of things. If we wishto walk in exalted circles, we must know how the game is played.”

James shook his head.“I don’t care to play that game.”

Father walked to the tall window, his glass yet in his hand.“I don’t carefor it myself.” James had never heard his father express such a sentiment.“But you cannot comprehend the difficulties I have passed through becauseour family lacks standing. Some things, important things, can only beaccomplished with the right connections. Those in a position of wealth and influence can open locked doors.”

“What doors of any importance have truly been closed to us, Father?” This was an old complaint, one James had heard throughout his childhood. He’d actually fully believed it until coming to Town and seeing the truth of things for himself.“We may not be regularly called to attend the Queen’s drawing rooms nor invited to the most exclusive balls and entertainments, but we have not been denied membership at our club. We receive more invitations during the Season than we can possibly accept. With a seat in Lords, our family has the opportunity to have a say in the future of the kingdom.” Of course, Father very seldom attended Lords, the very reason James felt the necessity of making the acquaintance of party leaders and policy makers. Someday the neglected Techney seat would behis own.“These are not insignificant, Father.”

But his father had already begun shaking his head.“You are not here often enough nor were you old enough to remember the very real limitations of our position.”

“We are not royalty,” James reminded him. “Of course our standing has limits.”

“Your mother comes from the gentry,” Father said.

“Yes, I know. A very respectable family.”

Father took another drink.“Respectable, yes, but in the eyes of theton, nearly irrelevant. She was not raised in Society. She has no connections there. Her first two Seasons in Town came after our marriage. She hadn’t so much as a friend among any of the ladies in the upper crust. She held at-homes that no one attended. She never received vouchers for Almack’s. Though I washeir apparent to an earl, I hadn’t the standing to ease her way.”

James’s heart ached at the thought of his quiet, sensitive mother enduring such humiliation. She took difficulties very much to heart, easily wounded and hurt.

Father drained the contents of his cup.“She avoids London as though the plague yet raged here.” He shook his head.“I’ve never been able to convince her to return, though I cannot blame her. Society’s proverbial door isclosed to her, and neither you nor I have the ability to open it.”

“Mother has not been to Town since before I began coming, and that’s been six years.” James had always assumed she simply didn’t care to leave home.

“She has not been to Town in twenty years, Tilburn. The very suggestion brings her to tears.” Father set his empty cup on the windowsill, his gaze on the cobblestone street below.

“I always assumed she did not come because her health is so often poor.”

“Do not be a simpleton,” Father said. “Her unreliable health ought tohave propelled her to town. Here, she would have access to the best physicians,the best care, and yet she stays away. Why do you suppose that is, Tilburn?”

James had long ago learned to recognize when his father was posing a rhetorical question. He no longer wasted his breath attempting to answer.

“She cannot bear the rejection or the loneliness. I have attempted to convince her to come. What have you, her oldest son, done to ease her way?”

“What could I have done? I didn’t know any of this.”

Father held him with a steely gaze. “And now that you do know? To have the right friend, evenonefriend of influence, would make all the difference in the world.”

James paced away, his mind full of revelations and possibilities and questions.“The duke would smooth the way for her?” No. That didn’t sound right. Everyone knew the duke rather despised people.

“Not the duke, but the duchess. She herself comes from humble origins but made a name for herself among theton.She would be unlikely tolook down on your mother for having married above herself. Her Gracecould whisper a word or two in the right ears, and your mother wouldhave the allies she needs.”

James leaned against the tall back of the chair he’d sat in earlier. He’d not given a second thought to his mother’s isolation in the country. She’d always insisted that she had no desire to go to Town, and he’d taken her at her word. Had she really avoided it all these years out of humiliation, for want of friends? She must have longed to join him when he’d made his annual trip to London. She had needed competent physicians. If only he’d known, he might have done something.

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