Page 31 of The Lady Who Said No to the Duke
‘That’s not the kind of thing we chaps talk about,’ he said with a shrug, but she knew he would keep the secret.Piers was fond of her and, as he grew, was inclined to tryto act the protective brother, even though he was younger and only just beginning to find his own way in society.
Next year he too would be taking part in the Season, but for now he and his friends were preoccupied with horses, sparring, learning how to cope with a crashing hangover and very cautiously exploring the scary creatures called women.
‘So, what are you going to do if you aren’t to marry a duke?’he asked after a few more mouthfuls of steak and eggs.‘Mama must be in a shocking state and Papa was looking grim at dinner last night.’
‘They are not best pleased,’ Thea said with considerable understatement.‘I shall do the Season, I suppose.’
‘Haven’t you seen all the eligible chaps the first time around?’her less than tactful brother enquired.‘And you’ve turned ten of them down.’
‘Six,’ Thea said absently.‘I turned down six.There are always new faces.People who did not come to London last year, officers from the Army and Navy home now the wars with the French are finally over.’
‘Widowers out of mourning,’ Piers suggested, pushing his plate away.‘That’s a thought.You could find a rich old husband and then be a rich merry widow when he expires from the shock of having a lively young wife.’
‘That’s horrible,’ Thea said.‘Mercenary and callous.Anyway, I wouldn’t want anyone to die.’She tried not to think about what being a lively young wife to a wealthy old man might involve.‘But it is true, widows seem to be the only ladies who have any freedom to live their lives as they chose.’
Widows were free from male control unless they were bound by particularly onerous trust conditions, or were financially dependent on their eldest son.
Now Papa controlled her finances, even the money inheritedfrom Grandmama and one of her godfathers.She could touch none of it without his permission until she married or reached the age of thirty, and that was nine years distant.When she married everything would become her husband’s except what was protected in the marriage contracts.And without money she had no options, as she had realised when she had contemplated running away from Cousin Elizabeth.
‘I shall do the Season, see if there is anyone I would like to marry who wants to marry me—and if not I shall grit my teeth and sit on the shelf enduring Mama’s lectures until I reach thirty.’
Or make a better plan.I am not without some intelligence, surely I will think of something?
Chapter Ten
Thea strongly suspected that her mother had spent the morning in bed working through thePeerageand making lists of noblemen and their heirs and then ranking them in order so that she could decide who was the second most eligible bachelor in England.
Or possibly Scotland, Thea mused as she sat in the drawing room pretending to be the perfect young lady while her mother entertained callers.
There were some ancient titles amongst the Scottish nobility, and some great landowners, like the Duke of Buccleuch—who was not in need of a wife, Thea was certain.Although after the Jacobite risings, many of the Scottish lords were still tainted by association, even seventy years after Charles Edward Stuart’s hopes of overthrowing the Hanoverian King had been crushed at Culloden.
Irish peers she was certain Mama would discount.For some reason Thea had never been able to fathom, Irish titles were considered second rate.Even the Duke of Wellington made a point of saying that being born and raised in Dublin did not make him an Irishman.
‘You have been out of town, I hear,’ remarked Lady Beale, who was sitting next to her.
‘Yes, into Lincolnshire for a very fleeting visit to mygodmother, Lady Holme.She was unwell and we were anxious for her, but she was suffering what proved to be a slight indisposition.She is quite well now and was adamant that I return so as not to miss any of the Season.I am very much looking forward to your musicale the day after tomorrow and would have been sorry to miss it.’
That was enough to divert any curiosity about her travels.Lady Beale possessed both a passion for music and a wealthy and retiring husband and could always be relied upon to start the Season very early with the first of her musicales.
‘London is still thin of company,’ she was saying now as Thea nodded and tried to look attentive.‘But the Italian contralto Mariella di Luca is in the country for only a few weeks and I could not allow her to leave without engaging her for at least one recital.’
Mama was signalling to her that Mrs Malvern required a fresh cup of tea and she went to pour that, receiving a meaningful look from her mother as she did so.She had no trouble interpreting that signal.Mrs Malvern might not be titled, but she had been left exceedingly well off by her late husband and made no secret of the fact that it would all go in time to her favoured nephew, heir to the Earl of Severton.
Obediently Thea delivered the tea and, as she knew Mama expected, took a seat next to the widow.
‘Your second Season, is it not?’Mrs Malvern said after a word of thanks.
‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘My nephew Richard, Lord Severton, will be in London for it this year.He was at the Congress last year.’
‘Many distinguished gentlemen were, I understand,’ Thea murmured, a memory of grey eyes and a deceptively innocent smile arriving uninvited into her mind.
Mrs Malvern beamed at the description.‘It has given him quite an air of the cosmopolitan,’ she said.‘I am sure he will seem sophisticated compared to some of our less well-travelled gentlemen.’
Thea smiled and nodded and continued to circulate until the last of the callers had rattled off in their smart town carriages.
She was gazing out of the window, lost in jumbled thoughts, when Drage brought in the post.
